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Briton saw detainees beaten to death
By AFP
From correspondents in London
January 30, 2005 "Daily
Telegraph" -- ONE of four Britons freed last week from US detention in Guantanamo Bay has described being tortured, witnessing the killing of fellow detainees by US interrogators and receiving threats to his family.
Moazzam Begg's testimony was quoted in Britain's Independent on Sunday today.
He said his ordeal, beginning at Bagram air base in Afghanistan, included being shackled and dragged, having a "suffocating hood" placed on his head and being struck in the head several times.
He also said he had witnessed two fatal beatings during interrogations by US officials in Afghanistan.
"Two of these beatings resulted in the deaths of two detainees in June and December 2002. I was witness to both, in some fashion," said Mr Begg, who was arrested in Pakistan in January 2001.
He also said he was interrogated more than 250 times during his detention, according to the newspaper.
The 25-page testimony was written while in solitary confinement last year at the Camp Delta detention centre in Cuba, in order to rebut US and British government allegations of his terrorist activities.
He said a confession he signed at Guantanamo Bay was executed "by coercion, and under duress".
He and Richard Belmar, Martin Mubanga and Feroz Abbasi returned to Britain on Tuesday. They were arrested by British police immediately, but released on Wednesday without being charged.
Mr Begg was now in a "safe house" with his family, The Independent on Sunday said.
AFP
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