Habib torture claims: transcript

Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib appeared on TV this week with his allegations of having been tortured by various agencies with the full knowledge of Australian officials, in Camp X-Ray and elsewhere.

"Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib says an Australian official stood by and watched as he was tortured in Pakistan.

"His claims of abuse and mistreatment have prompted the Opposition to call for a full investigation into whether Australian officials were somehow involved.

"Government officials will be quizzed about Mr Habib's treatment when they front a Senate estimates hearing later this morning.

"Mr Habib was freed from Guantanamo Bay, without charge, last month."

MAMDOUH HABIB: When they strip me, I don't know they put something in my bottom. I don't know what it is, and they put me nappies and they tied me up and they make photograph for me, in front of me, and they make video.

KIM LANDERS: From there he was taken to Egypt where he says he was tortured daily for six months.

MAMDOUH HABIB: With electric shock, beatings, they drugs.

KIM LANDERS: And there was no respite during the next two-and-a-half years he was held without charge at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where he says he was sexually humiliated by a female interrogator.

MAMDOUH HABIB: It's very rude actually. She put her hand in her privates, she take stuff of the blood and she threw it in my face.

KIM LANDERS: The 49 year-old claims Australian officials knew about some of the abuse.

At a military airport in Pakistan, he was twice visited by an Australian official.

MAMDOUH HABIB: Australian, he was watching me when I been beaten.

KIM LANDERS: And in Egypt another mystery Australian spoke to his American interrogators.

MAMDOUH HABIB: I have no idea. But if I see him, I will know him.

KIM LANDERS: Claims these officials did nothing while an Australian citizen was tortured have shocked the Opposition's Shadow Attorney General, Nicola Roxon.

NICOLA ROXON: The allegation that any Australians were involved in this sort of torture I think is quite explosive. There is a serious question to be asked. Did they or the US jeopardise the case against Mr Habib by letting torture be used as part of his interrogation?"

Source

No sign of a fair go for David yet
Fair Go for David (Note: Aussie David Hicks, also held in Amerika's Gitmo for years without charge, is still stuck in limbo.)

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