[JURIST] Saifullah Paracha [advocacy website], a Guantanamo Bay detainee who blocked [JURIST report] the US military from performing a cardiac catheterization [AHA backgrounder] on him last November, is increasing ill and suffering from frequent fainting and chest pains, his lawyers said Wednesday. Paracha, a Pakistani detainee who suffered two heart attacks while in US custody in Afghanistan, has refused the diagnostic procedure on the grounds that the Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] facilities lack sufficient medical equipment to ensure his health if something goes wrong during the procedure. Joint Task Force spokesperson Navy Cmdr. Rick Haupt said that Paracha was in stable condition and was monitored daily, adding that Paracha refused the procedure after a surgical team and mobile facility had been transported to Guantanamo at a cost of $400,000.

Last November, a federal judge rejected [JURIST report] Paracha's bid to be transferred to a facility in the United States or Pakistan for the procedure, finding that Paracha failed to "establish that he faces irreparable injury from having the procedure performed at Guantanamo Bay." AP has more.