Treatment of Detainees Is Debated by Lawyers
Bush administration lawyers, fighting a claim of torture by a Guantanamo Bay captive, argued in federal court that the newly minted law that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody does not apply to people held at the military prison in Cuba.
The Justice Department lawyers contended that a detainee at Guantanamo Bay cannot use the new law to challenge treatment that the prisoner’s lawyers described as “systematic torture.”
Lawyers for detainee Mohammed Bawazir oppose what they term the “extremely painful” new tactics used by the government to force-feed their client and end his hunger strike.
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