For the first time the US military is notifying lawyers of Guantanamo detainees if their clients have been force-fed.
Attorneys for several detainees being held at Guantanamo have been notified that their clients are being force-fed in the midst of the hunger strike that has been going on at the US base in Cuba since February. The Associate Press reports that Cori Crider, the attorney for Sami Mukbel, of Yemen, was among those who received notification of the action against her client. The US government has never released the names of those prisoners who were being force-fed before.
Crider was allowed to speak to her client by phone Monday morning, and reports that he has lost nearly 30 pounds since the beginning of the hunger strike, which is a protest “over indefinite confinement,” and what prisoners are calling “intrusive searches of their Qurans.”
A spokesman for the military said “the US preciously avoided discussing any prisoner by name.” Authorities at the prison claim there are 42 prisoners on hunger strike, and that 11 of those are being force-fed to “prevent dangerous weight loss,” but lawyers for the detainees insist the numbers are much higher.
Lawyers for prisoners held at Guantanamo say the U.S. government is notifying them if their clients are being force-fed during a hunger strike at the U.S. base in Cuba.
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