Gold9472
11-01-2006, 09:38 AM
Former 'enemy combatant' claims torture
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061031-034604-1947r
MIAMI, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Terrorism suspect Jose Padilla, originally held as an enemy combatant, has asked a federal judge in Miami to drop charges against him because he was tortured.
Padilla's lawyers say that he was kept from sleeping, kept in shackles for hours and housed in a small cell at a Navy brig in South Carolina. They also allege that interrogators threatened to cut him and pour alcohol on the cuts and gave him drugs, possibly LSD or PCP.
U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke told federal prosecutors to respond to the torture claims by Nov. 13.
Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in the United States in 2002. The government originally claimed that he was an al-Qaida operative and planned to set off a dirty radioactive bomb in the United States.
He was charged with conspiracy last year and moved to civilian custody in January.
Cooke has already dismissed the most serious charge against Padilla and his two co-defendants.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061031-034604-1947r
MIAMI, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Terrorism suspect Jose Padilla, originally held as an enemy combatant, has asked a federal judge in Miami to drop charges against him because he was tortured.
Padilla's lawyers say that he was kept from sleeping, kept in shackles for hours and housed in a small cell at a Navy brig in South Carolina. They also allege that interrogators threatened to cut him and pour alcohol on the cuts and gave him drugs, possibly LSD or PCP.
U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke told federal prosecutors to respond to the torture claims by Nov. 13.
Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in the United States in 2002. The government originally claimed that he was an al-Qaida operative and planned to set off a dirty radioactive bomb in the United States.
He was charged with conspiracy last year and moved to civilian custody in January.
Cooke has already dismissed the most serious charge against Padilla and his two co-defendants.