Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

Safrani in Afghanistan, said that though Safrani was at a training camp, he was just simply
“sitting with the brothers.… [Safrani was a] simple person who could not make explosives
and had bad security.” 364
After the US invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks, Safrani fled Afghanistan
to Pakistan, where he was apprehended by Pakistani security forces. He was first taken
to Kohat prison, where he was held for two weeks by the Pakistani military. There he was
interrogated by Americans in civilian clothes who took pictures of him. After two weeks he
was transferred to US custody and taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan. There, he said, US
personnel interrogated him continually and deprived him of sleep. His cell was in a tent and
he was detained with about 10 to 15 other detainees. He said it was very cold and there was
no heat and not enough food. “This was January,” he told Human Rights Watch. “They gave
us only one blanket for each prisoner and it wasn’t warm enough.” The Americans held him
there for approximately six weeks and then transferred him to Guantanamo Bay.
Transfer to Guantanamo
He said the 18-hour transit to Guantanamo was rough. He was transported with a large
group. Their heads were shaven and they were dressed in orange jumpsuits, hooded, and
required to wear headphones and black glasses to block sound and sight. Safrani was only
told he was being taken to a US Navy base but not told where. He only later figured out he
was in Guantanamo. He was given a blanket, toothbrush, and towel and then put in a cell
that was about 2 x 1 meters, where he was held for the next three months. It had a wooden
ceiling, held up by four pipes from each corner of the room, mesh walls, and a concrete
floor. There was no toilet in the cell, just a bucket.
After about three months, he was moved by bus to another detention facility at Guantanamo,
where he was detained for the next five years. He described this facility as a hangar,
with galvanized steel walls and a slanted roof. His cell was about the same size as his prior
one—the main difference being the walls were not mesh and the lights were on 24 hours
per day. The Americans also played voices and sounds over a loudspeaker between 7 a.m.
and about 1 p.m. and would sometimes bang on the galvanized steel sheets to make noise.
364 Ibid., p. 5.
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