Omar Deghayes - Abuse Claims

Abuse Claims

Deghayes has claimed that Guantanamo guards held him down and sprayed pepper spray directly into his eyes. Deghayes says that they then rubbed a rag soaked in pepper spray into the cornea of his right eye, which had already been weakened by a blow he received when he was a child. He says that he is now blind in that eye.

According to Deghayes's account: "...troops marched into his cellblock 'singing and laughing' before spraying his face with mace and digging their fingers into his eyes as an officer shouted 'More! More.' ...My eye has gone a milky white color ... After all I have been through in my life to save it."

The DoD declined to comment on specific abuse claims. However, DoD spokesman Lieutenant Commander Flex Plexico repeated his counter-claim that al Qaeda training manuals instruct al Qaeda members to lie about abuse, if captured, to trigger international outrage. He called Guantanamo:"...a safe, humane and professional detention operation..."

On August 10, 2007, Deghayes's family released a detailed dossier listing the tortures he claims to have been subjected to while in U.S. custody. Deghayes reported that he:

• Saw a soldier shoot a captive.
• Witnessed the partial drowning of captives.
• Saw a guard throw a Koran into a toilet.
• Saw a Moroccan/Italian named Abdulmalik beaten to death.
• Saw another captive beaten until the floor poured with blood, and he was left permanently brain-damaged.
• Was permanently blinded when a guard stuck his finger in his eye.
• Had excrement smeared on his face.
• Experienced sexual abuse, which was too traumatic to be described in detail.
• Was subjected to electric shocks.
• Was kept naked in the freezing cold and had freezing water thrown on him.
• Was starved for forty-five days.
• Received repeated death threats.