February 13, 2002
Immediate Release
The Progressive
Detainees Mistreated in U.S. Pakistani Who Died Was Allegedly Denied Medical Care
MADISON, WIS--Muhammad Butt, the only September 11 detainee to die while incarcerated in the United States, allegedly was denied medical care, The Progressive magazine reports in its March issue.
Butt, who died on October 24 at the Hudson County Correctional Facility in Kearny, New Jersey, had requested medical attention many times in the ten days leading up to his death, his cell mate told representatives of Human Rights Watch, according to an article entitled "Ill-Treatment on Our Shores" by The Progressive's managing editor, Anne-Marie Cusac
"What the roommate told us was he helped Butt fill out request forms," says César Muñoz, a Bloomberg Fellow at Human Rights Watch. "He told us Butt filled out five or six. He would fill one out and wait two days. When there was no answer, he'd fill out another one. He never got an answer." Human Rights Watch refused to release the name of the cell mate, for fear he would suffer retribution.
On the day Butt died, "he banged on the door for five or ten minutes," the cell mate told Human Rights Watch, according to Muñoz. Butt allegedly got no response. Muñoz and Allyson Collins, associate director of the U.S. program of Human Rights Watch, visited the cell mate on January 27.
The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which was housing Butt at the Hudson County Correctional Facility, denies that anything untoward happened.
We have absolutely no information to substantiate any of the allegations being propagated by Human Rights Watch," says Kerry Gill, an INS public affairs officer in Newark.
"The allegations of mistreatment are not confined to Butt's case," Cusac reports in her story. "Many others who were rounded up on orders of Attorney General John Ashcroft after September 11 claim to have been beaten, locked in solitary confinement, injected with substances against their will, or denied blankets, food, and toilet paper." Her report discusses several of their cases.
Cusac won a George Polk Award for magazine reporting in 1996.
Posted by Chris at February 21, 2002 03:54 PM