U.S. citizen allegedly tortured in United Arab Emirates
ACLU says Naji Hamdan, a naturalized American, was detained at the behest of the U.S. government and has been charged in the Persian Gulf nation with a terrorism-related offense.
A former Hawthorne man detained in the United Arab Emirates since Aug. 29 has been tortured and ultimately charged with a terrorism-related offense, according to a lawyer with the ACLU of Southern California.
Naji Hamdan, told his brother during a six-minute call early Tuesday morning that he had been pinned to the ground with his arms and legs twisted behind him and beaten until he passed out, according to an ACLU statement released Wednesday. The ACLU's information was based on the account from Hamdan's brother.
Hamdan, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was also beaten on the soles of his feet, kept awake by a spotlight and told that his family would be punished if he didn't confess to his interrogators' allegations, the ACLU said.
"They took out his soul," said Hamdan's brother, Hossam Hemdan, using a common Arabic expression, in an interview with The Times.
In addition to the beatings, Hemdan said, his brother told him that he had been stripped of nearly all his clothes and kept in a small, cold underground room for the three months. He was also denied medication for a liver condition, Hemdan said.
Hemdan, who spells his last name differently, said his brother signed every confession given to him, though he didn't know what he was signing and didn't care, in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the torture.
"Please get me out of here, I'm willing to sign anything," Hemdan said his brother told him.
Hamdan, who lived in the Hawthorne area for two decades and still owns an auto parts business in Los Angeles, faces four charges, including one related to terrorism, Hemdan said.
"It seems like they are trying to prosecute him using statements he made under torture," said Jennie Pasquarella, the ACLU attorney.
The ACLU filed a habeas corpus petition last month against the U.S. government alleging that Hamdan was being held at the government's behest. ACLU lawyers said they were considering amending the lawsuit to include the torture allegations.
"If the U.S. is responsible for his detainment -- which we believe they are -- they are responsible for this torture," Pasquarella said.
Hamdan's family has also hired its own attorney in the Emirates.
A State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs spokeswoman did not return calls for comment Wednesday and a spokesman for the Emirates embassy in Washington, D.C,. said it would be inappropriate to comment on a police and security matter involving a private U.S. citizen.
Hamdan was released from state security custody and taken to a prison near the city of Abu Dhabi on Nov. 26. Since his transfer he has not been tortured, Hemdan said. When they spoke, he tried to calm his jailed brother and assure him that things would be OK.
"I didn't even know my brother. They turned him into an old, shivery man; he's turned insane," Hemdan said. "He's a different person; he's not the Naji I know, not the brother I know."
Abdulrahim is a Times staff writer.
raja.abdulrahim@latimes.com
