Detainee lawyer wants court to prohibit Guantanamo force-feedings News
Detainee lawyer wants court to prohibit Guantanamo force-feedings

[JURIST] A lawyer for a Yemeni prisoner held at the Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detention camp has filed a motion in DC federal court asking that the use of a restraint chair and large nasal feeding tubes to force-feed his client be prohibited if he resumes his hunger strike. Muhammed Bawazir ended his protest hunger strike in January following some 12 days of force-feeding [CNN report] after refusing food for 140 days. The motion alleges that the force-feeding tactics now acknowledged by the Pentagon amount to a torture violating the recently-enacted McCain Amendment [JURIST news archive; amendment text] incorporated into the Detainee Treatment Act [JURIST document] prohibiting the cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of any person in the custody of the US government, either at home or abroad. The military says similar tactics are used to force-feed civilian prisoners on hunger strikes.

Reportedly only four detainees are still on hunger strike [JURIST report] after the military began using aggressive force-feeding tactics [JURIST report] to keep protesters alive. Lawyers had announced last month that several protesters were close to death [JURIST report] as a result of the hunger strikes. AP has more.

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