Prisoners ask US judge to halt force-feeding of hunger strikers at Guantanamo ahead of Ramadan

[cbayer]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/prisoners-ask-us-judge-to-halt-force-feeding-of-hunger-strikers-at-guantanamo/2013/07/01/911aee00-e262-11e2-8657-fdff0c195a79_story.html


By Associated Press, Published: July 1

MIAMI — Prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are asking a federal court to halt the force-feeding that is intended to prevent prisoners from starving to death during a hunger strike that has dragged on for more than four months.

A motion filed on behalf of four prisoners argues that the military’s practice of using a nasogastric tube to involuntarily feed striking prisoners with a liquid nutrient mix is inhumane and violates medical ethics. They also say it will prevent them from observing the traditional fast during the upcoming Muslim holy period of Ramadan, depriving them of the right to practice their religion as guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions.

“Being strapped to a chair and having a tube forcibly inserted through one’s nostrils and into one’s stomach is dishonorable and degrading,” according to the motion for a preliminary injunction. “It falls within the ambit of torture.”

The prisoners say in affidavits accompanying the motion that they are aware of the risk they face if the military stops force-feeding them and they continue to protest.

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