In 2004 Abdul Hamid al-Ghizzawi was given a blood test. He remembers it because it “resulted in alarm amongst the hospital staff”. At that time he didn’t get a reason for the alarm but later when a doctor told him of the infection that alarm became very clear. It’s not the first illness that Mr. al-Ghizzawi has gotten since he was taken to the American prison on Cuban soil. He has TB. He had hepatitis B before Guantanamo but it had been dormant. That was before his stay though, now he is dealing with a triple whammy; AIDS, TB and hepatitis B.
When he arrived to the military prison he was in good health.
In an affidavit filed with the US District Court in September 2006, Dr. Ronald Sollock, the Chief Medical Doctor at Guantánamo, confirmed that Mr. al-Ghizzawi “was subjected to complete medical tests by the military upon his arrival in Guantánamo in 2002,” and that he “entered [the prison] in good health,” although he admitted that “a history of hepatitis B was identified in tests performed in August 2002″ (even though Mr. al-Ghizzawi was never informed of this fact), and that he “was exposed to tuberculosis while at the base.”
Dr. Sollock also claimed that Mr. al-Ghizzawi “does not want to be treated for his life threatening illness[es],” although this is strenuously denied by Mr. al-Ghizzawi himself, who insists that he has never been informed about his health problems, and has never been offered any kind of medical treatment whatsoever.
His lawyer Candace Gorman has documented her client’s health issues since her first meeting with al-Ghizzawi in July 2006. During that meeting she saw a very ill man sitting before her who appeared to be in constant pain. He confirmed that since he has been detained his health has gotten worse with each passing year. He states that he has lost 10-15 kilos (22-33 pounds) since his arrest. He has severe pain in his abdomen, left side and back. The pain goes down his legs and is a constant when he is standing or walking. His belly is bloated and he has problems with vomiting and diarrhea.
When Gorman approached Andrew Warder the Department of Justice attorney who was assigned to the case and the authorities at Guantanamo they refused to confirm or deny her client’s claims of getting HIV at the prison.
“We are not privy to the particulars of what your client may have been told by his doctor, if anything, but Guantánamo provides high-quality medical care to all detainees.”
Each time Gorman visited with her client she noticed further deterioration with Mr. al-Ghizzawi’s health. Part of the reasoning behind this was the conditions in which he was held. He had been stripped of “comfort items” such as a thermal shirt to shield him from the cold. The reason for this was he has toilet paper in his pocket when he went for a shower. In December 2006 he was moved to Camp 6.
Conditions in Camp 6 at best can be described as barbaric. The detainees are cut off from the rest of the world. They have no visits or letters from family. They are denied newspapers, TV or listening to the radio. They are allowed one book a week. The detainees in Camp 6 have no blankets only plastic sheets to protect them from the air conditioning that leaves their cells freezing cold. They are isolated. They can not even talk to others.
During the July 2007 visit, he told Gorman that, “in his total isolation … he had begun talking to himself.” He added that he “recognized that this was a sign of a fraying mental state” and was “very distraught” about it.
Mr. al-Ghizzawi has been held without charge or trail. His case is so weak that Combatant Status Review Tribunal in 2004 stated that the evidence against him was insufficient to declare him an “enemy combatant” and that he should be released. It’s now 2008 and he is still in Camp 6.
The man that is being held was born in 1962. He was a former meteorologist who was married to an Afghan woman. His daughter was just a few years old when he was captured. She is growing up without a father to protect her on the hard streets of Afghanistan. Before his capture al-Ghizzawi and his wife had a bakery. When the bombing begun in his country during October 2001 he took his wife and fled to Jalalabad where his wife had family.
“armed men came to the home and told the family to turn over ‘the Arab.’” Fearing that his family would be harmed, Mr. al-Ghizzawi complied, and was then sold to soldiers of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, who sold him on to the US forces.
In November of 2004 his CSRT had two claims, he was part of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and he received his military training from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Weak claims at best.
In September 2006 his dossier had an addition. Now it claimed that he had met member of al-Qaeda in Pakistan in 1997 and stayed at an LIFG house in Jalalabad in 1997.
Mr. al-Ghizzawi has denied each and every claim that has been thrown at him. The evidence is flimsy. He should have been released years ago and yet he is in isolation fighting for his life as illness takes it over.
This is the story of just one man who lays in a cell. He once was healthy. He is now an old sick man.
He will be 46 this year.
46 is just too young to be old.
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