Washington – Lawyers for hunger-striking terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba must be notified before any of their clients are fed against their will, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
The government also must provide the lawyers of force-fed detainees with their clients’ medical records dating to one week before the start of involuntary feeding.
The hunger strikers allege inhumane and cruel treatment by medical personnel at the U.S. camp.
That includes feeding tubes inserted without anesthesia or sedatives to minimize pain, and tubes being reused without proper sanitization. Some detainees have been fasting since Aug. 8.
In a victory for the government, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler denied the lawyers’ request for the detainees to be in contact by telephone with their lawyers, relatives and friends.
At an Oct. 14 hearing before Kessler, Justice Department lawyer Terry Henry argued against such contacts, citing possible security risks.
Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti parents of a force-fed detainee said they will not approve his request to ask a judge to remove his feeding tube so he could die.
The detainee’s U.S. lawyer wants the man to get his family’s approval and consult with medical specialists not affiliated with the U.S. government.
“We utterly refuse,” Fawzi al-Odah’s father, Khaled, said Wednesday in Kuwait City. “Fawzi would not have taken such a decision unless he has lost all hope and some of his ability to reason.”
The 28-year-old detainee’s mother, Souad al-Abdul-Jalil, also complained about the difficulty of not hearing her son’s voice or seeing him in several years.
About two dozen inmates at Guantanamo have refused to eat to protest more than three years in detention at the U.S. facility, where the military holds about 500 detainees suspected of terrorist activities.
The judge said the military must notify the lawyers at least 24 hours before force feeding begins, and provide updated information at least weekly until detainees are no longer being fed against their will.
The department declined to comment on Kessler’s ruling, spokesman John Nowacki said.
