In a report by "The Independent," written by human rights lawyer Eric Lewis, details concerning the abuses at the Guantanamo detention facility have come to light. According to a report from the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, there is systematic documentation of multiple serious violations of treaties and fundamental international standards by the United States, including those prohibiting torture, inhumane treatment, arbitrary detention, and discrimination based on religion or nationality.
The report highlighted the suffering of detainee Abu Zubaydah, who is Palestinian and grew up in Saudi Arabia. It stated: "He was shot in March 2002, drowned 83 times, placed in coffin-sized boxes and smaller, deprived of food, clothing, and necessary medical care, and subjected to sexual violence." The report mentioned that Abu Zubaydah was used as a guinea pig to secure government contracts to interrogate hundreds of detainees who were captured. These methods were approved at the highest levels of the U.S. government under the so-called war on terror.
At the time of his capture, Abu Zubaydah was considered "a member of Osama bin Laden's inner circle" based on a statement obtained through the torture of another detainee. Although this detainee later retracted the statement, the false narrative continued to underpin Abu Zubaydah's mistreatment and years of detention. He was tortured in "black site" prisons operated by the CIA in Poland, Morocco, Thailand, Lithuania, and Afghanistan.
Lewis wrote: "In 2008, the U.S. government acknowledged that Abu Zubaydah is not a member of al-Qaeda. The United States should have admitted its mistake after six years of torture. He should have received an apology and been released by either the Bush, Obama, or Biden administrations. Yet, Abu Zubaydah remains detained at Guantanamo, has never been tried or charged, and has entered his twenty-second year in captivity." Abu Zubaydah has suffered severe deterioration in his mental and physical health, including injuries from torture, exacerbated by poor care.
