| Freelance americans accused of afghan torture Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3233365http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3233365
Wed 21 Jul 2004 10:50am (UK) Freelance Americans Accused of Afghan Torture "PA"
Three Americans accused of torturing Afghans in a private jail during a freelance counterterror mission went on trial today, with their ringleader denying claiming active US government support.
Jonathan Idema, Brett Bennett and Edward Caraballo were arrested when Afghan security forces raided a house in Kabul on July 5. American and Afghan officials say they were vigilantes posing as US special forces and had no official backing. pearing before a three-judge panel in a Kabul national security court, the three listened quietly to the charges including hostage-taking and torture, and as three of their ex-detainees described how they were beaten, doused with boiling water and deprived of food.
The Americans did not testify. But Idema said afterward that the abuse allegations were invented. He also said he was in regular phone and e-mail contact with Pentagon officials “at the highest level.”
Idema named a Pentagon official who allegedly asked the group to go ”under contract” – an offer they refused.
“The American authorities absolutely condoned what we did, they absolutely supported what we did,” he said.
The trial comes at an awkward time for American officials trying to contain a widening scandal over abuse in official US military prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq.
An official from the US embassy observed the trial but declined to comment on the proceedings, where only one of the Americans was represented by a lawyer.
Presiding Judge Abdul Baset Bakhtyari adjourned the case for at least two weeks to give the Americans and four Afghans accused of helping them more time to prepare their defence.
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