Abu Omar was incarcerated in several different prisons and ended up after seven months in a cell at the state prison of Amn El Dawla.
He describes the conditions: “The cell had no electricity and one cannot tell night from day and has no openings for ventilation and there was one blanket.
How can I sleep in a bathroom that smells so disgustingly rotten, that cattle would be embarrassed to urinate or defecate in, let alone a human being?…. [A]lthough I do not wish to recollect this place I remember what I experienced in brutal torture and sexual abuse and I am overtaken with [unclear word] and uncontrollable and continuous weeping….
The interrogations are conducted in rooms close to the cells and the prisoner hears in his cell the screams, the howling and the weeping. “When I was first kidnapped in Italy, I had maybe 4 or 5 white hairs in my head and in my beard, but after going to Egypt and after the brutal torture the hair on my head and beard has turned white.â€
As a result of the systematic torture, Abu Omar lost his hearing in one ear. Repeatedly, he describes how he was tortured—stripped, hung up by his feet, subjected to electric shocks on his head and body, while being struck in the genitals.
“I underwent torture through what they call ‘the mattress’ and it is a mattress that is placed on the tiled floor of the torture chamber and it is wet down with water and attached to electricity.
My hands were tied behind my back and so were my feet and someone sat on a wooden chair between my shoulder blades and another sat on a wooden chair between my legs and the electricity was switched on and I find myself raised from the strength of the electricity that is touching the water but the wooden chairs are keeping me from rising high and then the electricity is switched off and the interrogator tortures me by electric shocks to my genitals while cursing me and telling, ‘Let Italy be of benefit to you.’ â€
Abu Omar’s detailed description of his treatment is so gruesome that it is difficult to read it in full. Nevertheless, even more alarming is the fact that he is still being held at the notorious Torah prison, although the Italian authorities have been aware of his plight since April 2004. And the case of Abu Omar is not the only one.
It is presumed that some 60 to 70 Muslims have been kidnapped by the CIA and are currently languishing in Egyptian torture prisons.
Should a trial take place in Milan against the accused US and Italian agents, it would represent the first attempt to take action against the CIA for its practice of rendition. However, even if it comes to a trial, it is highly unlikely that any of the accused US agents would appear before the court in Italy. Their details have been put on a Europe-wide wanted list, but so far, Italian Justice Minister Clemente Mastella has refused to pass on to the appropriate US authorities a request for the extradition of the suspects.
http://www.rinf.com/columnists/news/italian-court-considers-trial-against-cia-agents-in-rendition-case
