Detainee Asks Court for Emergency Medical Care

After the Supreme Court rebuffed him last week, a Guantánamo Bay detainee who says military doctors diagnosed him with HIV/AIDS has filed an emergency motion for immediate medical attention and access to his complete medical records in U.S. District Court in D.C.

In two December letters to his Chicago-based attorney, H. Candace Gorman, Libyan detainee Abdul Hamid Abdul Salam Al-Ghizzawi wrote that American doctors had told him that he had AIDS. The Department of Defense denied the claim after reviewing detainee health records, and the Department of Justice has refused Gorman’s request for confirmation, citing privacy concerns.

Gorman filed a motion with U.S. District Judge John Bates yesterday seeking emergency medical care for Al-Ghizzawi and his complete medical records. In 2006, Bates denied Gorman’s motion to compel the government to treat Al-Ghizzawi for Hepatitis B and other illnesses. Officials at the prison have said repeatedly that Al-Ghizzawi has received adequate care.

Al-Ghizzawi was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and has been held at the naval base since 2002.