I was humiliated at Gitmo: freed Afghan

WASHINGTON - A young Afghan Guantanamo Bay prisoner has been released and returned to Afghanistan, the US Justice Department said Monday.
Mohammed Jawad was 17 when he was arrested six years ago, US officials say, but his lawyer says he was 14 and family members say he was 12.
Jawads conviction for throwing a hand grenade at two US soldiers, wounding them, was rejected by a US judge last month. The judge said his confession was obtained under torture.
Its still not over until he can walk free, but he is almost there, Marine Maj Eric Montalvo, an attorney for Jawad, was quoted assaying.
After the US judges ruling, the Justice Department first said it would seek new evidence, but eventually it filed no charges and the US military withdrew its charges. Reports said even the Army prosecutor came to doubt the case, and was relieved of duty.
The reports said the teenager was subjected to sleep deprivation at Guantanamo, and was held as an adult in facilities that segregated supposedly hard-line members of Al-Qaeda.
More than 540 detainees have departed Guantanamo since 2002 for other countries, the Justice Department said.
US officials have said they plan to put more than 60 remaining prisoners on trial. Fewer than 250 prisoners are believed to remain in the detention facility.
Reuters adds: Jawad said on Tuesday after his return home to Afghanistan he had been abused and humiliated during six years in custody.
He arrived back in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Monday and was reunited with his family. Jawad was the latest departure from the controve-rsial Guantanamo prison which President Barack Obama has pled-ged to close by mid-January 2010.
There was a lot of oppression when I was in Guantanamo and these inhumane actions were not for just one day, one week or one month, Jawad told Reuters, sitting on cushions in his family home in the south of the capital.
I was oppressed the whole time until I was released. They tortured prisoners very badly and did not allow prisoners to sleep, did not give enough food, he said.
They knew I was underage but they did not care about my age, Jawad said.
They insulted our religion and our holy Quran, they insulted us and behaved in an inhumane way, he said.
A weary-looking Jawad stood and stretched his hands behind his back to show how he had been bound sometimes by his captors.
He said he and other prisoners were told to eat with their hands bound behind their backs, bending over and putting their mouths into plates of food.
Jawad said he had been freed because none of the charges against him could be proved.
I remember the US government lawyer provided evidence against me but could not prove anything and in the end, the judge said: 'no charge against Mohammad Jawad can be proved and he is innocent, Jawad said.