KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 27 — A Malaysian detainee recently repatriated from the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba has revealed harrowing sketches illustrating the torture he endured during CIA interrogations.
The drawings, created over the last five years, document the brutal treatment he faced while in US custody, according to a report published today in Free Malaysia Today.
Mohamad Farik Amin, one of two Malaysians held at the controversial facility, produced the sketches at the suggestion of his US-appointed lawyer, Christine Funk.
The visual depictions were submitted as evidence to the US military court as part of his and fellow Malaysian Nazir Lep’s mitigation plea for leniency in sentencing.
Now declassified, these exhibits were submitted to the court as part of Farik’s mitigation plea for a lesser punishment.
Under military court rules, a jury may consider the “nature and length of pretrial detention” when determining the appropriate punishment or recommending clemency.
In January, Farik, 49, and Nazir, 48, were sentenced to 23 years in prison for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people.
Both pleaded guilty under a pre-trial agreement reached with prosecutors, which would allow their repatriation to a third country and release after five years.
The two men admitted to conspiring with Indonesian Encep Nurjaman, also known as Hambali, the mastermind of the bombings.
They also provided testimonies for use in Hambali’s trial, scheduled for March next year.
According to the declassified documents, both detainees informed the court of inhumane and cruel methods employed by CIA agents while held in solitary confinement in a secret prison in Afghanistan for three-and-a-half years following their 2003 arrest in Thailand.
During the trial, as his sketches were shown on-screen, Farik described how the torture started shortly after his arrest in Bangkok.
He shared that he was denied the ability to shower or brush his teeth for months.
“I was held nude and handcuffed with my legs chained to the floor for months. I could not move around in the cell. I soiled myself while in this position. The only noise I could hear was white noise buzzing all the time, 24/7,” Farik said in response to a question from Funk, according to court notes.
Farik said he was subjected to physical abuse, inflicted with pain, and humiliated throughout the period.
He added that whenever he tried to cover his genitals, an agent would slap his hands away.
“I have nightmares all the time (because of what I went through),” he was quoted as saying in the documents.
Among the sketches shown was one depicting Farik shackled with his arms behind his back while squatting with a broomstick behind his knees.
Another showed him shielding his genitals from view.
Other sketches illustrated him shackled with his arms raised above his head while being deprived of sleep, being shaved from head to toe, and shifting his weight from one leg to another to relieve pain.
One drawing depicted four guards, some wearing balaclavas, holding him to the floor while another CIA agent straddled him and poured water on his face and body.
Farik disclosed that he started taking accountability for his actions in 2014.
He shared with a psychiatrist that his perspective shifted after coming to terms with the fact that he could not change the world.
Hawthorne E Smith, who communicated with Farik via letters written in English for about nine months before his guilty plea, said Farik initially viewed himself as an idealistic youth from a relatively poor family who was prepared to make sacrifices to defend his faith, which he believed was under threat at the time.
Hawthorne E Smith, who exchanged English-language letters with Farik for approximately nine months before his guilty plea, described him as initially seeing himself as an idealistic young man from a modest background, willing to make sacrifices to protect his faith, which he perceived as being under threat at the time.
“He said he had wanted to do something meaningful for his faith and family during his young adulthood. It was during this time that he began to consider jihad to protect his faith. He was an idealistic Muslim,” Smith explained.
Smith added that over the past 20 years, Farik has transformed.
“He is not an angry young man anymore. He is a reformed man. He feels more content and confident in his faith. He plans to move forward as a good and peaceful Muslim,” said Smith, as stated in the declassified documents.
