A former Guantánamo detainee is facing forced repatriation from the United Arab Emirates to Russia where he faces a “substantial risk of torture” according to UN human rights experts.
Ravil Mingazov is a Muslim Tartar who spent 15 years without charge in the US prison camp on Guantánamo Bay before being transferred to the UAE in January 2017. The conditions of the transfer were kept secret, but his family and legal team were given assurances that he would be freed after a few months. Those assurances were not kept.
Instead, they say he has been held in worse conditions than Guantánamo, suffering torture, deprivation of water and medical care. He now faces being sent back to Russia, which has a record of torturing prisoners transferred from Guantánamo, and locking them up after dubious trials.
“Ravil has been on hunger strike, and we’re aware that he’s being tortured, whilst detained in the UAE as well,” Reprieve’s Nick Beales said. “He’s been held in solitary confinement for extended periods, and he’s suffered physical abuse at the hands of the guards detaining him.”
Read the full story at the Guardian.