UN expert says inmate still being tortured at Guantanamo Bay

Nils Melzer, UN's special rapporteur on torture, said that an inmate at the USdetention facility at Guantanamo Bay is still being tortured.

“By failing to prosecute the crime of torture in CIA custody, the USis in clear violation of the Convention against Torture and is sending a dangerous message of complacency and impunity to officials in the USand around the world,” Melzer said in the statement.

Ammar al-Baluchi, an inmate in Guantanamo Bay, was reported to have been tortured and ill-treated.

The UN statement also reported al-Baluchito have suffered relentless torture for three-and-a-half years in CIA “black sites” before he was moved to Guantanamo.

The inmate had been kept in isolation at a severely restricted-access facility at Guantanamo Bay for more than a decade.

Al-Baluchi was named 153 times in the USSenate's 2014 "torture report", the result of a six-year investigation into so-called enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"In addition to the long-term effects of past torture, noise and vibrations are reportedly still being used against him, resulting in constant sleep deprivation and related physical and mental disorders, for which he allegedly does not receive adequate medical attention.”

The statement did not carry any details of the source of the information linked to al-Baluchi's torture.

Former President Barack Obama ended the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" via executive order in January 2009, but Melzer said the historic use of torture in CIA custody had not yet led to prosecutions or compensation for victims.

Melzer said the ban on torture and ill-treatment was one of the most fundamental norms of international law and could not be justified in any circumstances.

He said he had renewed a long-standing request to visit Guantanamo Bay to interview inmates, but he and his predecessors in the role had consistently been denied access.

There was no immediate comment from USofficials in Geneva.

(With inputs from Reuters)