Government knew of Habib's tortureSENIOR members of the Howard Government, including the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, were given a detailed briefing on Mamdouh Habib's horrific allegations of torture in Egypt as early as mid-2002.
But they never told the Australian public of the allegations, did little to investigate them and, three years later, were still protesting they did not know Mr Habib had even been in Egypt.
The report, titled Australian Government Visit to Guantanamo Bay: Welfare Aspects, goes on to describe how Mr Habib said his "captors made him listen to noises that resembled ... the sound of his wife being raped and children being beaten." He said he was "placed neck-high in water for extended periods of time and not allowed to sleep."
Throughout the interview, and a later one conducted by ASIO officers, Mr Habib urges his interviewers to take his claims of torture in Egypt seriously, but is told that is not why they are there to see him.
Mamdouh Habib"The US has also alleged that Mr Habib spent time in Afghanistan and helped to train al-Qaeda militants, although, now the US has decided not to press charges, the precise allegations against Mr Habib may never be known.
In fact, ever since his arrest, it has not been clear what Mr Habib was being held for.
Mr Hayat said that once the Pakistani authorities had finished interrogating Mr Habib, they handed him over to Egypt at the US' request."
Ex-Captive in Guantánamo Makes Run for Office in Australia "He says his doctor has told him his stomach has been damaged. Mr. Habib thinks it is from having gas forced into it through some kind of tubes inserted into his rectum when he was detained and, he says, tortured in Egypt.
“It made you feel like you were flying,” he said.
Mr. Habib, an unemployed 51-year-old father of four, was an early case of rendition. He was seized in Pakistan in October 2001, where he has alleged that he was tortured, then bound up by tough English-speaking men in black and secretly flown to Egypt, where he was held and, by his accounts, tortured for several months, before being shipped to the American detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in April 2002.
He was released from Guantánamo and returned to Australia in February 2005 without any charges filed against him, because the Bush administration did not want the torture allegations aired in court, Australian and American officials have said. "
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