Chad bars Guantanamo ex-inmate from travel-lawyers

By William Maclean

LONDON (Reuters) - A rights group accused Chad on Thursday of refusing a passport to a former Guantanamo detainee needing foreign treatment for injuries lawyers say were caused during seven years in captivity, which he began as a teenager.

Reprieve, a human rights group that campaigned for the release of the man, Mohammed El Gharani, said Chad's failure to allow him to travel meant he could not see his parents, who live in Saudi Arabia, or get foreign specialist medical treatment.

Gharani was freed in June, five months after a U.S. federal judge ordered him released having reviewed the evidence against him and ruled that there was nothing to suggest he was ever an "enemy combatant".

A Reprieve statement said his inability to travel since his return to Chad in mid-year meant he could not seek attention for a crippling spine injury resulting from abuse in captivity, and ensured "he remains impoverished and emotionally isolated".

The statement quoted the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, as urging Chad to provide Gharani, a Chadian citizen, "with a passport and to permit his travelling abroad for receiving appropriate medical and psychological torture rehabilitation treatment".

"I am particularly concerned about the fate of Gharani, who began his captivity as a teenager, was still a child when transferred to Guantanamo and who has lost some of his most important years of adolescence in illegal detention," he added.

Youssouf Takane, Chad's deputy ambassador to the United States, told Reuters by telephone he expected that in time Gharani would be issued with a new passport.

"The Chadian government cannot deprive Gharani of his citizenship or his rights of citizenship," he said. "It is maybe a question of time. There are a few minor security matters to be addressed. The authorities will accelerate this issue."