Guantanamo prisoner had surgery to fix damage caused by sodomy, lawyer says

An alleged accomplice in the 9/11 terrorist attacks underwent reconstructive surgery for decade-old damage from sodomy in CIA custody and was to be returned to prison to recuperate, his attorney said on Saturday.

“All they said is there was minimal bleeding and he is recovering,” attorney Walter Ruiz, a Navy Reserve commander, said Saturday.

His client, Mustafa al Hawsawi, 48, was scheduled to begin surgery at 9pm on Friday and Ruiz said he was informed that it was over by 10.45pm.

Hawsawi, a Saudi, and four other men are awaiting a death-penalty trial for allegedly orchestrating the September 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and outside Washington. He voluntarily missed Friday’s hearing.

An unclassified portion of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s black site programme included allegations that Hawsawi was subjected to rectal exams with “excessive force” before his 2006 transfer to Guantanamo, and that at one point he had a “medical emergency” that the agency considered having treated in a foreign hospital.