Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al-Janko has not had an easy life the past nine years.

 

First, al-Qaeda tortured him because they thought Janko was an American spy. They subjected him to electric shocks and near-drowning. Then he was held prisoner by the Taliban for 18 months. When he was finally freed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, he was transported to Guantánamo Bay and held for seven years. There, he says, he was tortured by American officials. Richard Leon, the federal judge who ordered Janko’s release in June 2009, called his ordeal a “Kafkaesque nightmare” and characterized the lengthy U.S. imprisonment as defying common sense because there was no evidence linking him to terrorists.

 

Janko is now suing the U.S. government over his alleged torture. He claims he was urinated on, slapped, threatened with fingernail removal, deprived of sleep and subjected to extreme cold and stress positions. During his confinement he sustained a broken knee and developed kidney stones, he says.

 

A Kurd from Syria, he is now residing in an unnamed country because it is not safe for him to return to Syria.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

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Freed Guantanamo Detainee Sues U.S. Military over Alleged Torture (by Spencer Hsu, Washington Post)

Tortured by al-Qaeda, Imprisoned by Taliban…and at Guantánamo (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Gitmo Detainee Says Years of U.S. Tortures Were as Bad as Taliban's (by Ryan Abbott, Courthouse News)

Janko vs. Gates et al (pdf)

Order by Judge Richard J. Leon in Abdulrahim Abdul Razal al Ginco v. Barack H. Obama, et al (pdf)