British Students 'Tortured' by Israel

Friday, June 13 2003 @ 06:12 PM GMT

"Chaudry said that he was detained when crossing from Israel into Jordan. 'They said I looked suspicious and we were arrested for questioning. That was the only reason given at first' .." LONDON - Two Muslim medical students have returned to the UK, complaining Friday that they were tortured by Israeli interrogators after being detained in the occupied territories without trace. Tahseen Chaudhry from Birmingham University said he and his colleague Ayaz Ghani were handcuffed and blindfolded and incarcerated in a "medieval dungeon," while being interrogated for 12 hours at a time to make them confess links with terrorism. He said that during their 11-day detention, they were denied any contact with the outside world, despite repeatedly asking to speak to British consular officials, a lawyer, the Red Cross or their families. Chaudry's solicitor, Imram Khan, accused Israel of using "psychological torture" and warned that other British Muslims could face the same treatment if they visited the occupied territories. "What is quite concerning is that the reason for the detention appears to be simply that he was British and a Muslim. There is a huge number of people who could potentially find themselves in a similar position," Khan said in an interview with BBC radio. Chaudry said that he was detained when crossing from Israel into Jordan. "They said I looked suspicious and we were arrested for questioning. That was the only reason given at first." "I was basically shackled, handcuffed and blindfolded and put into an armored car and transported to an interrogation center where I was put in a cell and over the next 11 days taken out in the mornings and interrogated all day," he told the same BBC programme. The medical student said that he was so exhausted that he kept falling asleep, but the Israeli teams "swap over and repeatedly wake you up and question you about why you came to Israel and what you were doping in other Middle East countries." Chaudhry and Ghani, in their fourth year of their medical degree, were touring Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the West Bank, when they were arrested on May 24. They had been due to fly from Damascus to Dubai on the evening of June 7 but did not catch the flight. Their families have complained that they were not advised by the Foreign Office in London when they disappeared without trace, even though consular officials were told about their arrest within 24 hours. Chaudry said that he was put in a dark cell that measured only two meters by one meter, describing it like a "medieval dungeon." He said that their families had originally been told they had been kidnapped. Their families have also said that they were confused when they were told on June 4 that they were being handed over to Jordanian authorities, who initially denied this for several days.