Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

‘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