Pentagon Moves to Block Exam of Tortured Guantánamo Prisoner
In his final days in office before a new administration takes over, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy changed a regulation to sidestep court rulings requiring the medical examination.
Ryan D. McCarthy, the secretary of the Army, signed a memorandum that declared that detainees at Guantánamo were excluded from a regulation governing treatment of prisoners.Credit.Andrew Harnik/Associated Press
Jan. 15, 2021
WASHINGTON â In his final days as Secretary of the Army, Ryan D. McCarthy has moved to thwart a federal judgeâs order for an independent examination of a mentally ill prisoner at Guantánamo Bay who was previously tortured there, the Justice Department disclosed on Friday.
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Lawyers for the prisoner, Mohammed al-Qahtani, 45, had obtained the order in March for two foreign doctors and one from the U.S. Army to examine the man under an Army regulation to determine whether he should be repatriated to his native Saudi Arabia for psychiatric care
In his final days as Secretary of the Army, Ryan McCarthy has moved to thwart a federal judge’s order for an independent examination of a mentally ill prisoner at Guantánamo Bay who was previously tortured there, the Justice Department disclosed Friday.
Lawyers for the prisoner, Mohammed al-Qahtani, 45, had obtained the order in March for two foreign doctors and one from the U.S. Army to examine the man under an Army regulation to determine whether he should be repatriated to his native Saudi Arabia for psychiatric care.