Padilla Was Drugged, Threatened by Authorities, His Lawyers Say

By Jeff Bliss and Jeff St.Onge
Bloomberg
Oct. 22, 2006

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Lawyers for accused terrorism supporter Jose Padilla say U.S. authorities drugged him with LSD or PCP, filled his cell with ``noxious fumes'' and threatened to slash him with a knife while he was being held without charges.

In court papers seeking dismissal of charges against Padilla, his lawyers said the abuse occurred after President George W. Bush declared him an ``enemy combatant'' following his arrest in 2002. The designation allowed Padilla, a U.S. citizen, to be held without being charged with a crime for three years and five months.

``The torture took myriad forms, each designed to cause pain, anguish, depression and, ultimately, the loss of will to live,'' according to the court document filed Oct. 4 in federal court in Miami.

A call and e-mail seeking comment from the U.S. Justice Department weren't immediately returned.

The government initially accused Padilla, who was arrested in Chicago, of plotting to explode a radioactive ``dirty bomb'' in the U.S. The government later said the al-Qaeda terrorist group trained him to blow up U.S. apartment buildings.

In November 2005, Padilla and four co-defendants were indicted on charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. He is awaiting trial.

The government is appealing a judge's decision to dismiss one charge against Padilla of conspiracy to ``murder, kidnap and maim'' people. Padilla is asking the judge to throw out the entire case against him on the grounds his right to a speedy trial was denied.

For almost two years, Padilla was kept in isolation in a 9- foot-by-7-foot cell with no view of the outside world, said the court papers filed by his lawyers. Prison authorities also deprived Padilla of sleep and shackled him in uncomfortable positions for hours, his lawyers said.

``Noxious fumes would be introduced to his room causing his eyes and nose to run,'' according to the filing.

Prison officials gave Padilla ``drugs against his will, believed to be some form of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or phencyclidine (PCP), to act as a sort of truth serum during his interrogations,'' according to the filing by his lawyers.

Padilla's interrogators told him he might be sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where prisoners caught during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan are being kept, his lawyers said.

``He was threatened with being cut with a knife and having alcohol poured on his wounds,'' the filing said.

The case is U.S. v. Hassoun et al., 04cr60001, U.S. District Court in Miami.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Bliss in Washington at [email protected] .












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