Prisoners abused in secret US-Afghan jail, report claims

A report by a US think tank has accused the country's military of mistreating detainees and of violating its own rules in a secret prison in Afghanistan.

Globalsecurity.org

The 16-page document by the Open Society Foundations, which is financed by billionaire George Soros, reports detainees’ accounts of being kept without adequate shelter or food and to have been prevented from practicing their religion.

The abuse took place in a secret facility, referred to "Tor jail" or "Black jail", which is on the Bagram air base outside Kabul, but not the same as the Bagram US’s publicly acknowledged detention facility, the report says.

It quotes detainees as saying they were held in excessivly cold isolation cells, supplied with inappropriate or inadequate food, bedding and blanketing and denied exposure to natural light.

Some also claim to have been prevented from carrying out their religious duties and kept from exercising.

The author, Jonathan Horowitz, says the allegations should be taken seriously by the Obama administration which has sought to reform detention practices in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon says that it always treats prisoners humanely.