- Eight foreign terror suspects held without trial for
nearly three years in British prisons have experienced mental torture and
are now suffering from serious psychiatric illnesses, a team of doctors
revealed yesterday.
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- Their findings showed that all of the men have self-harmed
and considered suicide and one has attempted to take his own life by hanging
himself.
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- The men and three of their wives have been interviewed
by a team of 11 eminent consultant psychiatrists and one leading consultant
psychologist. Their report concludes that all eight are suffering from
"major depressive anxiety disorder and some are experiencing post-traumatic
stress disorder". The report concludes: "There is evidence from
repeated clinical interviews carried out by expert clinicians that indefinite
detention is having a damaging impact on detainees' mental health."
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- The men were all arrested shortly after the terrorist
attacks on America on 11 September 2001 under emergency legislation rushed
through Parliament. Six of the detainees come from Algeria, one from Tunisia
and one from Gaza.
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- Professor Ian Robbins, a clinical psychologist at St
George's Hospital, London, said: "Where they have no control of their
own situation this is a sense of mental torture." He added this was
particularly so because they had no information about the reasons for their
detention and were anxious about contact with their families.
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- Dr James MacKeith, emeritus consultant forensic psychiatrist
at the Maudsley Hospital NHS Trust, asked: "If you know that this
regime is damaging mental health are you then invulnerable to the charge
that this is torture?"
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- The medical team identified an unusual and alarming degree
of commonality regarding the symptoms of depression and anxiety from which
each of the men were suffering. "A number of detainees as their mood
has deteriorated have developed significant psychotic symptoms. These symptoms
were not present prior to detention," the report says.
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- They were particularly concerned about the feelings of
suicide experienced by the detainees. "The detainees originate from
countries where mental illness is highly stigmatised. In addition, for
devout Muslims, there is a direct prohibition against suicide. This is
particularly significant given the number who have attempted or are considering
suicide."
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- The report said the men's mental health problems were
"unlikely to resolve while they are maintained in their current situation.
And given the evidence ... It is highly likely that they will continue
to deteriorate while in detention".
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- The report also found that the men's detention in Belmarsh
prison in south London and Woodhill prison near Milton Keynes had had a
serious psychiatric impact on their wives. The doctors said all three wives
who were interviewed were showing signs of "clinical depression"
and one was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The report concludes
that their symptoms relate directly to the "incarceration of their
husbands and its indefinite nature".
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- Yesterday their lawyer, Gareth Peirce said four of the
men were suffering from what ordinary people would describe as "madness"
and had been considered for transfer to Broadmoor at the request of the
Home Office.
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- She said all the detainees had been arrested and taken
straight to prison but never interviewed or questioned by police. None
of the men had been charged with any offence, nor had they been told the
nature of the evidence against them.
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- She said: "The basis on which all are held is that
the Home Secretary had a suspicion that each was linked to a person or
to a group that might be said to be supportive of the aims of al-Qa'ida,
that is all. It is impossible for the detainee to disprove there was a
basis for such suspicion, in particular where it is based on intelligence
which is only considered in secret."
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- Professor Nigel Eastman, who chaired yesterday's meeting
at the Royal College of Psychiatry, said it was not for the experts to
question the legislation (Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001).
But the findings would necessarily touch upon the mental effects of the
legislation and "whether, as a society, we should have laws that override
ordinary civil rights".
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- Dr Sophie Davison, a consultant forensic psychiatrist
at Guy's Hospital, London, said all the men seemed to share a sense of
"hopelessness and helplessness" which distinguished them from
prisoners serving life sentences in British jails. She said that because
none of the detainees had a date for release or parole, they felt there
was nothing they "could work towards". Dr MacKeith said the men
were part of an "especially vulnerable group" who had been traumatised
by experiences in their own countries and the nature of their arrest and
detention in Britain was "reminiscent" of this kind of trauma.
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- But yesterday's report concludes that the prison healthcare
system is "unable to meet their health needs adequately".
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- Mrs Peirce described all the men as being "very
socially isolated" and recently they had had a number of privileges
withdrawn.
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- The detainees are all classified as category A prisoners
and spend between 20 and 24 hours a day inside their cells.
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