Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

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Malaysia and Thailand In Kuala Lumpur, Belhadj and his wife were detained by Malaysian authorities for 13 days and held in very bad conditions. 260 “My wife needed a doctor and couldn’t get health care,” Belhadj said. 261 He said that one of his associates had visited the British embassy in Kuala Lumpur and let officials there know that Belhadj wanted to seek asylum in the UK. 262 Shortly thereafter the couple was told, though it is not clear by whom, that they would be allowed to travel to the UK but only through Bangkok. 263 However, after the two arrived in Bangkok, they were arrested while in the airport waiting room. 264 They were then taken to a special room in the airport in Bangkok in which, Belhadj alleges, he and his wife were severely mistreated and abused by the CIA for several days. 265 While in CIA custody in Bangkok, Belhadj said he was “stripped and beaten.” 266 He was forced to be naked, wear a blindfold, was hung against a wall by one arm and then by one leg, and was put into a tub with ice. 267 He was also forced to wear earmuffs that were only removed when his captors blasted his cell with loud music or when he was being interrogated. 268 Belhadj said they gave them no food and they refused to get him a doctor when he told them he needed one. 269 He was asked about his alleged ties to al Qaeda, which he denied. 270 Belhadj’s wife said that she was dragged away from her husband at the Bangkok airport and feared he was going to be killed. In an interview with The Guardian, she said, “I thought: 260 Ibid.; Also, Human Rights Watch interview with Belhadj, Abu Salim Prison, Tripoli, April 27, 2009. 261 Human Rights Watch interview with Belhadj, Abu Salim Prison, Tripoli, April 27, 2009. 262 Martin Chulov, “MI6 knew I was tortured, says Libyan rebel leader,” The Guardian, September 5, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/05/abdul-hakim-belhaj-libya-mi6-torture?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 (accessed June 15, 2012). 263 “Libyan rebel leader Abdel Hakim Belhadj sues British Government for illegal rendition to Libya,” Reprieve news release. 264 Human Rights Watch interview with Belhadj, Abu Salim Prison, Tripoli, April 27, 2009. 265 Ibid. At that time, Belhadj told a Human Rights Watch researcher that he was detained in Bangkok by the CIA from around March 3, 2004 until he was sent to Libya on March 9, 2004. 266 Ibid. 267 Ibid. 268 Ian Cobain, “Special report: Rendition ordeal that raises new questions about secret trials,” The Guardian, April 8, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/08/special-report-britain-rendition-libya (accessed May 2, 2012); See also Deborah Haynes, “Faces of new Libya tell of ‘torture’ inflicted on them with British aid,” The Times, May 23, 2012. 269 Human Rights Watch interview with Belhadj, Abu Salim Prison, Tripoli, April 27, 2009. 270 Ibid. 93 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 2012
‘This is it.’ I thought I would never see my husband again…. They took me into a cell, and they chained my left wrist to the wall and both my ankles to the floor. I could sit down but I couldn’t move.” She said her captors included two tall, thin men and an equally tall woman who were mostly silent and dressed in all black. 271 At the time, Bouchar was four and a half months pregnant. “They knew I was pregnant,” she said. “It was obvious.” 272 She said her captors gave her water while she was chained up, but no food for five days. 273 The couple said they were separately put on a plane to Libya, but were not aware that the other was on the flight. 274 Belhadj said he was handcuffed and blindfolded and that his hands were tied to his legs. 275 He was crouched over, unable to stand or lie down, for the entire 17-hour journey. He was forced to drink water and prevented from using the bath- room. 276 He said he was beaten just before the plane landed. 277 Sometimes his captors put a cushion under his elbows, providing brief respite, but then took it away again. 278 Bouchar later told The Guardian that her captors forced her to lie on a stretcher and bound her to the stretcher from head to toe with tape. They taped her stomach, arms, and then her chest so tightly that she was unable to move. They then wound the tape around her head, covering her eyes, before putting a hood and earmuffs on her. She was unable to move, to hear or to see. “My left eye was closed when the tape was applied … but my right eye was open, and it stayed open throughout the journey. It was agony,” she said. She did not know where she was going or that her husband was on the plane. Only upon arrival in Libya did she hear a man grunting with pain, and realized her husband was with her. 279 The Tripoli Documents corroborate the couple’s account. The UK government appears to have alerted Libyan authorities that Belhadj and his wife were in Malaysian custody. 280 A 271 Cobain, “Special report: Rendition ordeal that raises new questions about secret trials,” The Guardian. 272 Ibid. 273 Ibid. 274 Ibid. 275 Human Rights Watch interview with Belhadj, Abu Salim Prison, Tripoli, April 27, 2009. 276 Ibid. 277 Ibid. 278 Cobain, “Special report: Rendition ordeal that raises new questions about secret trials,” The Guardian. 279 Ibid. 280 Tripoli Document 2264 appears to be a document sent by the UK secret service to the Libyan intelligence service. Human Rights Watch photographed a copy of this document, but it is too blurry to read. A legible copy was also obtained by The Guardian and is available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2012/apr/08/libya-mi6 (accessed June 14, 2012). DELIVERED INTO ENEMY HANDS 94
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H U M A N R I G H T S W A T C H Del
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Copyright © 2012 Human Rights Watc
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Mustafa Jawda al-Mehdi ............
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This report is based mostly on Huma
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These stories provide new details a
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Gaddafi opponents in Libya. Ten of
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treatment. Nor did they protect det
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two more the following April. Commu
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esponsibilities. Mehdi and Shoroiey
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identified in this report to Libya,
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of compiling the names of those who
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Libya from the 1970s to the 1990s I
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Gaddafi also made major changes to
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Abu Salim massacre, in which prison
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insurgency, mainly in eastern Libya
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In late autumn of 2007, these repor
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econciled with Gaddafi and a number
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PLACES OF ARREST, DATES OF TRANSFER
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Shoroeiya and Sharif said that once
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Arrest and Detention Shoroeiya and
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CIA Rendition Transportation Proced
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Both were detained in this first lo
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Abu Yasser al Jazairi, from Algeria
Page 47 and 48: Sharif also said he learned the nam
Page 49 and 50: Afghanistan on April 25, 2004. Both
Page 51 and 52: Shoroeiya and Sharif both alleged t
Page 53 and 54: The Interrogators Shoroeiya said th
Page 55 and 56: He said there were doctors present.
Page 57 and 58: Mohammed Shoroeiya said his interro
Page 59 and 60: stan.” 191 Both thought they migh
Page 61 and 62: Shoroeiya said there were intrusive
Page 63 and 64: “The biggest suffering for any pr
Page 65 and 66: Majid Mokhtar Sasy al-Maghrebi Maji
Page 67 and 68: him in Pashto, they spoke to him in
Page 69 and 70: Loud music was blaring constantly.
Page 71 and 72: On various occasions while detained
Page 73 and 74: he was in Karachi, Pakistan. After
Page 75 and 76: faces. He said he saw from the eyeh
Page 77 and 78: His interrogators would come to him
Page 79 and 80: He again went on hunger strike, ask
Page 81 and 82: Di’iki was detained in solitary c
Page 83 and 84: Mustafa Salim Ali el-Madaghi Mustaf
Page 85 and 86: took photos of him; put him in diap
Page 87 and 88: flight plan to go into Nouakchott,
Page 89 and 90: Mehdi said he first went to Saudi A
Page 91 and 92: Pakistanis responded in Pashto. He
Page 93 and 94: There were about 12 interpreters, p
Page 95 and 96: know what’s going to happen to yo
Page 97: Departure from Libya Belhadj was bo
Page 101 and 102: information with you [Libyan securi
Page 103 and 104: equests for information from Abu
Page 105 and 106: subsequently was able to receive vi
Page 107 and 108: Sami Mostefa al-Saadi © 2012 Human
Page 109 and 110: making harsh statements against the
Page 111 and 112: denied permission for the Libyan ai
Page 113 and 114: Saadi said he was held without char
Page 115 and 116: complicity in his transfer back to
Page 117 and 118: Abu Farsan spent the next decade at
Page 119 and 120: They noted in the fax that they und
Page 121 and 122: On June 7, 2006, Abu Farsan was tra
Page 123 and 124: Safrani in Afghanistan, said that t
Page 125 and 126: V. The Case of Ibn al-Sheikh al-Lib
Page 127 and 128: In late 2001, Pakistani authorities
Page 129 and 130: 2004, al-Libi recanted the informat
Page 131 and 132: held until December 2006, when the
Page 133 and 134: It is not clear when Ibn al-Sheikh
Page 135 and 136: Mostafa al-Mehdi (see above) saw al
Page 137 and 138: VI. Detainees Rendered From Other A
Page 139 and 140: appointed a lawyer who he said did
Page 141 and 142: In early 2008 he was charged with b
Page 143 and 144: government. After 1992, when the go
Page 145 and 146: governments during the Gaddafi gove
Page 147 and 148: conflict or emergency, may “opt o
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them to Libya in violation of their
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each country to which the agency de
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shelving the Gibson Inquiry and wou
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To the US Congress • Create an in
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To the Government of the Netherland
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Acknowledgments This report was wri
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Recreation of Document 2144 SUBJECT
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Translation of Documents 2164-65 Al
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Delivered Into Enemy Hands US-Led A
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Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

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