US police 'had sex in front of Guantanamo Bay prisoner'

Guantanamo Bay detainee Feroz Abbasi claimed American military police had sex in front of him while he was praying at the Cuban base, according to US Defence Department documents.

The Briton, who was detained for more than three three years before being released last year, also alleges his captors tried to feed him pork and misled him into praying toward America instead of Mecca.

The claims are contained in documents released yesterday following a Freedom of Information Act request by the American news agency Associated Press.

They are transcripts of tribunals where the detainees were screened. This information has been released before but this time the names are included.

Mr Abbasi told the tribunal two couples, men and women who were military police, had sex near him on two separate occasions, once while they thought he was sleeping and another time “while he was praying”, the former detainee said in the document, in which he referred to himself in the third person.

Mr Abbasi, from Croydon, south London was one of nine British nationals who had been detained at Guantanamo. They have all been set free and when flown back to the UK were released without charge.

He was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and later transferred to the US military base. He denied allegations he was an al Qaida member.

One military police person “knowingly and wilfully misdirected” Mr Abbasi to pray toward the north – the direction of the US – instead of east toward Islam’s holy city of Mecca, said his tribunal statement.

Another tried to feed the detainee “a hot plate of pork” – food forbidden by Islam, he said.

During the hearing the detainee repeatedly tried to explain that he was unfairly classified as an enemy combatant. An Air Force Colonel, whose identity remains blacked out, would have none of it.

“Mr Abbasi, your conduct is unacceptable and this is your absolute final warning. I do not care about International Law. I do not want to hear the words International Law again. We are not concerned about International Law,” the Colonel insisted before having Mr Abbasi removed.

None of the current inmates at Guantanamo are British, but Amnesty international believes eight of them have previously been resident in the UK and that some have relatives here.

Last month, three British residents detained at the military base were given the go-ahead to seek a High Court order requiring Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to petition for their release.

One of them, Bisher al-Rawi, 37, an Iraqi national who had lived in Britain since 1985, was named among the thousands of pages posted on the Pentagon website.

He was detained three years ago in Gambia with his business partner and later handed over to the US authorities.

They were alleged to have been associated with al Qaida through their connection with the radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada.

The released transcript said Mr al-Rawi “told the tribunal that he is from a wealthy family and that he had gone to Gambia with his brother to open a peanut processing factory.

“The detainee, who said he had provided information about the Muslim community in Britain to the British intelligence agency MI5 in the past, described Abu Qatada as a friend and that he had helped the cleric find an apartment.”