BAHRAIN: Former Bahraini Guantanamo Bay inmate Isa al-Murbati says he was psychologically and physically tortured during his six years of incarceration

Record ID: 498038

  • Title: BAHRAIN: Former Bahraini Guantanamo Bay inmate Isa al-Murbati says he was psychologically and physically tortured during his six years of incarceration
  • Date: 5th October 2007
  • Summary: (MER1) MANAMA, BAHRAIN (RECENT) (REUTERS) BAHRAINI EX-INMATE OF GUANTANAMO PRISON ISA ALI ABDULLA AL-MURBATI GREETING INTERVIEWER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) BAHRAINI EX-INMATE OF GUANTANAMO BAY PRISON CAMP ISA ALI ABDULLA AL-MURBATI SAYING: ''I landed at a Pakistan airport. As soon as I landed, I went to immigration to deal with passport formalities. Just after I finished, as I was walking towards the airport exit someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked for my passport. I gave it to him, and began waving at the immigration area and asked me to go with him. I was evidently startled and tried asking him what this was about but didn't say a word. He immediately took me to a small room and I sat there for about an hour. After that, they put me in a jeep, and took me to a Pakistani jail.'' VARIOUS OF AL-MURBATI READING QURAN AT HOME (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) BAHRAINI EX-INMATE OF GUANTANAMO BAY PRISON CAMP ISA ALI ABDULLA AL-MURBATI SAYING: ''As soon as we got off the plane in Guantanamo, they took us in a big bus. They beat us and screamed at us and dragged us into that bus. We were all exhausted after that plane trip. We couldn't see anything, they had blindfolded us but we could hear sounds and screams coming from the others until we got to another place. They forced us. Because of how exhausted we were, we barely had any self-control.''
  • Embargoed: 20th October 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Bahrain
  • Country: Bahrain
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAEJ59YWGEGQA4N2Z0FXHG5AY5Y
  • Story Text: Reeling from his six years spent in the world's most infamous prison facility, forty-two-year-old Isa al-Murbati stood in elation as he was reunited with his family and fellow countrymen in Manama in August. The last of six Bahrainis to be released from Guantanamo prison, al-Murbati, who was incarcerated and held without trial, recounts the intriguing moments of his 'arrest' during that fateful day six years ago.
    "I landed at a Pakistan airport. As soon as I landed, I went to immigration to deal with passport formalities. Just after I finished, as I was walking towards the airport exit someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked for my passport. I gave it to him, and began waving at the immigration area and asked me to go with him. I was evidently startled and tried asking him what this was about but didn't say a word. He immediately took me to a small room and I sat there for about an hour. After that, they put me in a jeep, and took me to a Pakistani jail", said al-Murbati.
    Al-Murbati was subsequently blindfolded, deafened with ear muffs and thrown in a plane and flown across the world to Cuba along with a multitude of other prisoners. Arriving in Guantanamo, al-Murbati claims he was greeted by a cacophony of screams, beatings and cries of pain.
    "As soon as we got off the plane in Guantanamo, they took us in a big bus. They beat us and screamed at us and dragged us into that bus. We were all exhausted after that plane trip. We couldn't see anything, they had blindfolded us but we could hear sounds and screams coming from the others until we got to another place. They forced us. Because of how exhausted we were, we barely had any self-control," said al-Murbati.
    Washington has faced fierce criticism worldwide for the detention without charge -- often for years -- of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
    The United States holds 340 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre, set up to handle prisoners captured after the September 11 attacks in 2001.
    The quietude and tranquility of his Manama home undoubtedly seems a far cry from the auditory torture he endured. Isa al-Murbati now sits in serenity, teaching his son Quranic verses. Nevertheless the silence experienced by al-Murbati's family during his disappearance was arguably as torturing as his Guantanamo welcome.
    ''I heard about his incarceration in Guantanamo though a letter that he had sent. He sent a letter, saying hello and everything, and wrote that he had been transferred to Guantanamo," said Ali al-Murbati, Isa's eldest son.
    Al-Murbati also claims that the interrogators at Guantanamo Bay used both physical and psychological methods of "torture" and even took advantage of the inmates ailments when carrying out interrogations.
    ''For example, if someone is complaining about an ailment, a disease and so on, and needs immediate attention, the doctor, before performing on him contacts the interrogators, alerting them to the prisoner's condition. The interrogators summon the prisoner, and use the doctor's diagnosis to their benefit, using it against him, as another form of torture. One could say that even their treatment methods and medication were only employed to intensify their interrogation methods," al-Murbati explained.
    To safeguard his sanity, Isa said he would spend long hours reading books. As he describes, days blended into the other, weeks became indistinguishable and years were eternal.
    Al-Murbati also voiced his anger by participating in the 2005 hunger strikes which involved up to 128 inmates, about a quarter of the prison.
    Nevertheless that form of protest was stopped by forced feedings. Some were even tube fed.
    Six years from that initial encounter in Pakistan airport, Isa al-Murbati, now free wants to forget that time warp in his life. He sees himself as a new man.
    ''The moment I returned to Bahrain, I mean, I couldn't believe it. It was such a huge thing for me, how to leave one world and enter a completely different one. I felt as if I had been born again'', said al-Murbati.
    Today however, he faces big challenges. Isa says that the confiscation of his passport has made it difficult to realise his dream of opening a car wash business.
    Thanks to a group named the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, and Mohammad Khaled, a member of parliament who has been very active in favour of the Bahraini x-inmates, al-Murbati will hopefully be helped further in reintegrating into society and maybe even receive a sum 50,000 Bahraini Dinars (USD 132,000) in compensation.
    Isa al-Murbati says that there is a lot he wants to forget and there is a lot he has yet to mention. He plans on writing a book when he finds an appropriate and trustworthy author.
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