Guantanamo prisoners fear lifetime of custody

Foreign prisoners held at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, do not see any hope that they could leave U.S. custody in their lifetime, according to newly-released transcripts of hearings at the island prison.

"We are in a grave here," a prisoner named Ahamed Abdul Aziz was quoted as saying in one of the transcripts publicized last Friday by the Pentagon under a court order.

Aziz has been held in Guantanamo for more than three years and has been interrogated 50 times, but has never been charged with a crime.

His words echoed the overwhelming despair felt by many of the 490 or so prisoners at Guantanamo, about 98 percent of them have never been charged with a crime.

"I don't want to spend any more time here. Not one more minute, " Mohammed Gul, an Afghan prisoner, said at a hearing.

Another Afghan prisoner said, "I was not a Taliban. I was not against the Americans. I want to go home."

Meanwhile, there are signs that the U.S. government plans to make Guantanamo a permanent detention facility.

A two-storey prison building which can house 200 detainees is scheduled to open this summer. It will be located near a similar facility that can house 100 detainees.

The Guantanamo prison has altogether held some 750 detainees at different times since 2002, most of whom were captured in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan in 2001, being held indefinitely without a trial.

Source: Xinhua