Lawyer, family say man among suspects interrogated at secret prisons

April 04, 2007
Debra Black
staff Reporter
Anthony Mitchell
Associated presser

A former Toronto resident is believed to be among hundreds of suspects from 19 countries who have been interrogated by CIA and FBI agents hunting for Al Qaeda militants at secret prisons in Ethiopia, a country notorious for torture and abuse.
Human rights groups, lawyers and several western diplomats say hundreds of prisoners — including women and children — have been transferred secretly and illegally in recent months from Kenya and Somalia to Ethiopia, where they are kept without charge or access to lawyers and families.

The detainees include at least one Canadian and some from the U.S., Sweden and France, according to a list compiled by a Kenyan Muslim rights group and flight manifests obtained by The Associated Press.

Toronto lawyer Lorne Waldman has no doubt that Bashir Makhtal is one of those detainees.

“There’s no question Bashir Makhtal is amongst those people,” said Waldman who was hired by Makhtal’s family to fight for his freedom.

“We’ve seen the flight manifest from human rights groups that Bashir was on the flight. We received confirmation from informal sources that he’s there.”

Makhtal was arrested in late December as he tried to enter Kenya to escape the civil war in Somalia. He was detained for several weeks and then deported to Mogadishu, Somalia, and then on to Ethiopia in January.

He was alleged to have ties to the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a separatist group fighting for the independence of ethnic Somalis in eastern Ethiopia.

Waldman met with the Ethiopian ambassador last week to discuss his case, but the ambassador refused to acknowledge that Makhtal was in detention there.

“We’re deeply concerned for his safety because it’s well known when a person is held incommunicado like Bashir is, he’s at grave risk for torture. This story confirms our worst fears that Bashir is being held for the purposes of interrogation and torture.

“It was reported at the time that the Americans believe there was a large number of Al Qaeda members who were amongst the supporters of the Islamic Court and those people fled during the course of fighting,” said Waldman, referring to the radical Islamist government that briefly dominated Somalia before being driven out late last year with the help of Ethiopian troops.

Today, members of Makhtal’s family and members of the Ogaden Somali Community Association of Ontario plan to demonstrate in front of the Ethiopian embassy in Ottawa to draw attention to his plight.

“We’re trying to raise awareness of my cousin that he’s still in Ethiopian custody,” explained Said Makhtal, who lives in Hamilton.

“They’re not admitting that they have him. As long as they continue to do that ..... I’m going to do everything we can to raise awareness. I’m not going to give up until I see some response from the government of Ethiopia.”

Ethiopian officials denied they hold secret prisoners or any detainees were questioned by U.S. officials.

“No such kind of secret prisons exist in Ethiopia,” said Bereket Simon, special adviser to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

Ethiopia is a country with a long history of human rights abuses. In recent years, it has also been a key U.S. ally in the fight against Al Qaeda, which has been trying to sink roots among Muslims in the Horn of Africa.

U.S. government officials acknowledged questioning prisoners in Ethiopia. But they said U.S. agents are following the law and fully justified in their actions because they are investigating past attacks and current terrorism threats.

The prisoners were never in U.S. custody, said FBI spokesperson Richard Kolko. He said U.S. agents were allowed limited access by governments in the Horn of Africa to question prisoners as part of the FBI’s counter-terrorism work.

Details of the arrests, transfers and interrogations slowly emerged as AP and human rights groups investigated the disappearances, diplomats tracked their missing citizens and the first detainees to be released told their stories.

One investigator from an international human rights group, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Ethiopia has secret jails at three locations: Addis Ababa, the capital; an Ethiopian air base east of the capital and in the far-eastern desert close to the Somali border.

The International Committee of the Red Cross is seeking access to the Ethiopian detainees, said a diplomat from a country whose citizens are being held. He insisted on speaking anonymously because he is working for their release.

The CIA began an aggressive program in 2002 to interrogate suspected terrorists at an unknown number of secret locations from Southeast Asia to Europe. Prisoners were frequently picked up in one country and transferred to a prison in another, where they were held incommunicado by a co-operative intelligence service.

 

Yayacanada