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| Home Front: WoT |
| Abu Ali torture claims probed |
| 2005-10-18 |
| An FBI doctor noticed marks on the back of a U.S. citizen who claims he was whipped while in Saudi custody, but the physician said on Monday he did not mention the observation in his medical report. Richard Schwartz, a contract doctor for the FBI, examined Ahmed Abu Ali in February, 2005 as he was being transported from Riyadh to return to the United States to face charges of plotting with al Qaeda to kill President George W. Bush. Abu Ali, 24, arrested in 2003 while studying in Saudi Arabia, has said he was tortured while in Saudi custody for 20 months. His lawyers charge that he was whipped, kicked and chained to a wall with his arms over his head in between late-night interrogations. They said he has marks on his upper back after he was whipped in the days following his arrest in June 2003. The lawyers are seeking to throw out statements and confessions Abu Ali made while in Saudi custody because they said they were obtained by coercion. U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee is holding a week of hearings on the matter. U.S. prosecutors say there is no credible evidence to support the allegations of torture. Schwartz said he examined Abu Ali on the FBI airplane returning him to the United States and noticed four "linear" marks on Abu Ali's back but did not note them in his report. "These were areas of increased pigmentation," he said. "They were flat, not typical appearing of scarring in that they were not elevated or depressed." "I did not record them, because with his history and physical they did not seem consequential," Schwartz said, adding that Abu Ali denied being mistreated in prison. U.S. diplomats have testified that they visited Abu Ali while he was held in Saudi Arabia and he did not appear to have been abused. Two FBI agents said that Abu Ali told them he had been coerced into making and signing confessions by the Saudis who used "torture techniques." Agent Barry Cole said Abu Ali made the comments to a team of FBI agents who were in Saudi Arabia to question him about possible plots against Bush and the United States. "The only complaint he made...(was) that he had been subjected to mental torture," said Cole. When the FBI agents asked for more details, Abu Ali told them to "forget about it -- we wouldn't understand because it was a Muslim thing," Cole said. Abu Ali has pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment charging him with conspiring to kill the president and with providing support and resources to al Qaeda. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Judge Gerald Bruce Lee Or is that Judge Gerald "Bruce" Lee? /snark |
| Posted by: Spot 2005-10-18 08:24 |