Gitmo Detainee: I Was Tortured

In 2002, Lakhdar Boumediene was a relief worker who cared for orphans. “I’m a normal man,” he says. So when the US shackled him and flew him to Guantanamo Bay, he thought he’d be freed soon. “They have CIA, FBI. Maybe one week, two weeks, they know I am innocent,” he says. Now, 7½ years and two landmark court victories later, the Algerian has finally been released. He sat down with ABC News to discuss his ordeal.

Asked if he thinks he was tortured, Boumediene replied, “I don’t think. I know.” He says he was kept awake for 16 days straight, shackled and pulled to stretch his body, dragged bloody behind running guards. When he went on a hunger strike, he says, the guards would play “games” with him, shoving his IV needle up his nose. “You think that’s not torture?” he asked, showing the scars his shackles left. “What can you call this?” (More Lakhdar Boumediene stories.)