Malaysia helped CIA in global torture, says new report

Malaysia has been named among 54 countries which have helped the US's Central Intelligence Agency by hosting secret torture cells and participating in illegal deportation of detainees to and from US custody without any legal process.

In a 216-page report (left) released by New York-based Open Society Foundations on 'extraordinary rendition', or the transfer of detainees bypassing legal process, the plight of some 136 individuals was studied, revealing how they experienced 'extraordinary rendition' in 54 countries.

One such case is that of Libyans Fatima Bouchar and her husband Abu Abdullah al-Sadiq or better known as Abdul Hakim Belhadj, who had led a military group fighting the former Muammar Gaddafi regime and who now leads a political party in Libya.

The report - the first ever such report to document globalising of torture - said that the couple was detained for 13 days in 2004 by Malaysian authorities in Kuala Lumpur, before being told later that they could travel to Britain via Bangkok.

Pregnant and chained to the wall

However, both were subjected to torture by CIA agents, who detained them in a special room by the CIA at the Bangkok airport.

Fatima reported of being "chained to a wall and not fed for five days", while being about four month pregnant.

The report found that Malaysia had detained the couple on behalf of the CIA.

"Documents discovered in Tripoli in September 2011 show cooperation between the CIA and the Malaysian government in effecting al-Sadiq’s transfer.

"A memorandum dated March 4, 2004, from the CIA to the Libyan government states '[w]e are working energetically with the Malaysian government to effect the extradition of Abdullah al-Sadiq from Malaysia. The Malaysians have promised to cooperate and arrange for Sadiq’s transfer to our custody'," it added.

The report also details the arrest of Malaysian national Mohamad Farik bin Amin, who was nabbed in Thailand in 2003 and transferred from secret CIA detention to Guantánamo Bay, where he now remains, alongside fellow Malaysian Mohammed Nazir bin Lep who is accused of terrorist acts without due process of law.

The CIA, according to the report, has been involved in a secret detention programme under which suspected

terrorists were held in CIA prisons outside the US, where detainees were subjected to torture.

"Secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations, designed to be conducted outside the United States under cover of secrecy, could not have been implemented without the active participation of foreign governments. These governments too must be held accountable," it stressed.

-Harakahdaily