Raul Bassi, Sydney
At about 10.30pm on March 29, dozens of residents gathered together after two young men were gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Blaxcell Street, in Sydney's western suburb of Granville. Among the residents were Mamdouh Habib and one of his sons.
Police immediately targeted Habib and his son, capsicum-spraying both of them before throwing them into a paddy-wagon. No one else was taken in for questioning.
At the police station, Habib and his son were physically abused, stripped naked and given fresh clothing. Both were released without charges in the early hours of the next day without a cent or assistance to get home. Habib's car and his and his son's personal belongings, including their clothing and Habib's wallet, were kept by police.
Habib was a US military hostage who was tortured and traumatised while held in the US prison at Guantanamo Bay as a "suspected terrorist", before being released uncharged early last year and allowed to return to Australia.
The nightmares Habib went through while in the hands of his US torturers in Pakistan, Egypt and Guantanamo were brought back to him by his detention and abuse by NSW police on March 29.
Mamdouh Habib is a member of the Canterbury-Bankstown Peace Group, which, along with Justice for Hicks and Habib, is demanding a parliamentary inquiry into the abusive treatment Habib received at the hands of the police.
For more information, phone Raul Bassi on 0403 037 376 or Marlene Obeid on 0401 758 871. Habib will address a CBPG-organised public forum titled "Torture - are you next?" on April 15, 3pm, room 429, building 2 at the University of Technology, Sydney, Broadway.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, April 5, 2006.
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