PRESS RELEASE
11th May 2009
Cageprisoners questions a disturbing report, as yet unconfirmed, that Ali Mohamed Al-Fakheri, otherwise known as Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, committed ‘suicide’ while detained in a Libyan prison. No further details have been revealed although it is known that Al-Libi was extremely ill and suffering from tuberculosis and diabetes and had endured torture in the year that he was detained as part of the ‘High Value Detainee Program.’
Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi had never been charged with a crime by the US and was summarily sentenced to life imprisonment in Libya. Given the well-documented abuse of prisoners in Libya, it is highly probable that his abuse would have continued during his proxy detention.
Cageprisoners demands that the US and Libyan authorities disclose full details of his detention and the circumstances of his suspicious death.
Cageprisoners’ Director and former Guantanamo detainee, Moazzam Begg, said:
“The case of Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi – the man whose tortured testimony was used to justify a war that cost the lives of tens of thousands of people and, ironically, indirectly led to the pre-trial detention of thousands more – should serve as a stark reminder of what happens when torture is applied to gain information. President Obama has recently granted immunity to CIA agents who may well have been involved in Al-Libi’s interrogation and torture. If the desire to get at what went wrong is so blatantly covered up under colour of incongruous ‘national security concerns’ there will be no end to this. And once again, the warmongers will get away with another odious and criminal cover-up.
The US administration has proposed transferring prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to their countries of origin through the use of Memoranda of Understanding. Al-Libi’s case highlights deporting individuals to countries with a record of torture is unlawful and a clear violation of the rule against torture. Diplomatic assurances have no legal value and thus cannot be relied on to protect detainees from abuse.
Cageprisoners is a human rights organisation that exists to raise awareness of the plight of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other detainees held as part of the War on Terror. We aim to give a voice to the voiceless.
al-Libi was a hot patato. His torture confessions justifying Iraq war. Now he was discretely silenced. Socialist Jumhuriat took today 500+ boat-people from Berlusconi-Italy. I wonder how the Green Bokk explains that procedure.