Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

Mehdi said he first went to Saudi Arabia “just to get out of Libya—to survive.” But once
there, he found that many people were going from there to Afghanistan and that it was very
easy to do so. He followed suit. It was in Afghanistan and Pakistan that he first became
involved with the LIFG. He stayed in the area, met his wife in Peshawar, married in 1993,
and remained in Pakistan until 2004.
Arrest and Detention
On February 23, 2004, when Mehdi was travelling on Kohat Road about 10 minutes outside
of Peshawar, around 20 cars suddenly surrounded his vehicle. He was arrested by men
that Mehdi believed were members of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI),
because he recognized their uniforms. Two other people with him were also arrested, but
the authorities were clearly just interested in him, as they asked for him specifically by the
name he was using at the time, “Ayoub.”
Documents found in Musa Kusa’s office, in a binder marked “UK,” indicate that the British
intelligence service MI6, also referred to as SIS, was looking for Mehdi (noting that he was
born in 1965 in Tripoli) at some point after January 29, 2003. 245
Peshawar
Mehdi said he was detained in Peshawar for about 40 days at the Army Stadium in the
military area. He told Human Rights Watch that on that first day in detention, the interrogations
were initially just done by the Pakistani ISI, but by noon Americans were present. He
said he knew they were Americans because when they came, they put a hood over his
head, used an interpreter, and asked questions solely about the United States. He said the
same interrogators who questioned him in Peshawar later questioned him in Islamabad
and after that, in Afghanistan, where he was in US custody for 10 months. During those
later interrogations, he was not forced to wear a hood and could see their faces.
While in Peshawar, Mehdi was interrogated about seven to ten times by an American
woman, using an interpreter. He said he was later able to tell that the interrogator had
blond hair and green eyes, was of medium height, and was likely in her thirties. He was not
245 Tripoli Document 2220.
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