Well, well, well...a blast from the past. We all remember our boy, Mamdouh, right?A judge ruled Friday that an Australian man's claim that he was mistreated in custody in Pakistan before being sent to the U.S. jail for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay could not be believed. Justice Peter McClellan of the New South Wales state Supreme Court ruled against Mamdouh Habib in the man's defamation suit against a Sydney newspaper, which Habib said had implied he lied about being tortured.
| He said Habib was "prone to exaggerate," "evasive" and had made claims about mistreatment in Pakistan and Egypt which could not be sustained. |
Habib said he would appeal.
I wonder if ASIO is still sneaking into his house and moving around his furniture?
Habib, an Egyptian-born immigrant, was arrested in late 2001 in Pakistan. He says he was held there for 28 days and was interrogated by Americans before being transferred to Egypt, then six months later to the U.S. military base at Bagram, Afghanistan and then Guantanamo Bay.
Habib told the court he had been beaten "like a dog" and electrocuted by his captors while he was in Pakistan, and that while in Egypt he was kept drugged and shackled, had his fingers broken, and was sexually molested. He claimed that Australian officials were present during parts of his ordeal.
Habib was returned to Australia in January 2005. No charges were ever filed against him, and the Australian government says he has committed no crime under Australian law. The government cancelled his passport, however, saying he posed a continuing security threat. U.S. officials accused Habib, of traveling to al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and knowing about the September 11, 2001 attacks before they happened. "I spent half my life in Guantanamo Bay, the rest I'm going to spend in an Australian court house," he told reporters outside the court. "I want to get justice, that's what I'm after." Habib has appeared regularly in media interviews talking about the alleged abuse.
Christ, he sounds like Roger Clemens...
Habib sued Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper for a 2005 article he said defamed him by implying he had lied about the alleged torture, and a civil jury initially upheld Habib's claim. The paper's publisher, News Ltd., launched a legal defense of the article that was based on challenging Habib's credibility. Friday's ruling was the result of that case. Habib is also suing the federal government for compensation, arguing the government failed to uphold his rights as a citizen during his detention. It was not immediately clear what effect Friday's ruling would have on the compensation case, which is under way in a different court.
Keep it up, bub. Gitmo's still there...