Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

The next day the US personnel overseeing his detention transferred him to another room
where they took off all his clothes. They made note on a human body chart of every mark
on his body. 248 They also took photographs of him naked. 249 Before boarding a plane, they
replaced one blindfold with another, which allowed him to see a huge hangar with military
equipment and large aerial bombs, indicating he was at an air base.
He said he was put into a container containing a three-person American team wearing
black T-shirts. These men accompanied him on the flight back to Libya. He was stripped
again and more photos were taken of him naked. 250 Then they put him in diapers and put
on earplugs, eye patches, and a hood over his head. He was given something to drink and
some clothes. They handcuffed him to the seat and wrapped an adhesive or belt around
him. He did not know it at the time but later learned that Khalid Sharif was with him.
Upon arrival he heard Libyan voices all around him. “Being returned to Libya was the worst
fear I had,” he said. “I thought this was the end—that the real interrogations were going to
start and the real suffering was going to begin.”
Mehdi said he was held in a number of different prisons in Libya. While conditions were
very difficult, he was not physically abused. He was first detained for 14 months in Tajoura,
where he said he was held in poor conditions, kept in solitary confinement for long periods,
and subjected to numerous long and arduous interrogations. The questions very often had
nothing to do with Libya but were about people from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and other
countries. His interrogators demanded information about the individuals and if they were
part of al Qaeda. They often came with photos, sometimes with English writing next to them.
He experienced the worst conditions while in Libya in his next place of detention, al Nasser
bureau, where he was held for four and a half months. He was in solitary confinement
during this time in a very small cell that he said was about 2 x 0.5 meters in size, with no
light. “They just leave you there in this place and forget about you,” he said. “You don’t
248 Bashmilah and Maqtari also describe examinations by a doctor who noted distinctive marks and injuries on a human
body chart. See Bashmilah Declaration, http://www.chrgj.org/projects/docs/declarationofbashmilah.pdf, (accessed May 27,
2012), para. 84; and Amnesty International, A Case to Answer, p. 26.
249 Mehdi said in his interview that he remains concerned about the existence of these photos.
250 See text box, “CIA Rendition Transportation Procedures,” (above).
89 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 2012