Tripoli Ex-prisoner 8/13/11

(This was quoted from our August 13th From a Good Source pages, which are not yet available online, but this eyewitness account needs to be heard)

(A French translation is here; Russian is here )

@CEOdanya The story of an ex-prisoner from #Tripoli…
one of the many thousands of men and boys who were taken from their homes, from the streets, from all around Tripoli ..even if they weren’t protesting…God save #Tripoli God FREE #LIBYA.

Mohammed S. was first kept at the Libya border, at Ras-Jader. He was coming from Derna, which is why he was detained there in the first place. They kept him in a Ras Jader prison, and left him alone for 2 days. Then they questioned him there. Luckily the guy was one of the good ones. He told him that if he could fake being sick, then he may be able to send him to an hospital where there may be a chance that he could leave, if he was lucky. They did, so he went there; he first got checked by a Pakistanis doctor. At the start, he spoke in English and told him about everything, but then another Libyan doc came who was a Gaddafi goon. He checked him carefully, and told him that he looked fine and was a liar.

From there, they took him to a prison in Al-Jamel. Before he left the hospital, they injected him with a shot that made him unable to resist or move his arms. He was not in control of his body when they took him to the prison. Then they started to beat him. Due to that shot, he was not able to try to avoid blows, nor to move his hands. He could not protect himself against the kicks and punches that were thrown at him.

Some of the “methods” they use on them:

- They keep them in a pitch-black room and beat them with sticks while wearing night vision goggles, while laughing. It was like a funny game for them.

- They keep them in a room while some Taekwondo and Judo trainers train them, and practice their fighting skills on them while wearing masks hiding their faces.

- If a prisoner misbehaves, they take him outside and put him into a car of the type “express” for 5 days without being able to go to a toilet. So then,  they had to relieve themselves in the car. Imagine how many people were there before you, and how the car looks, and their smiles when they throw you in it. At night, they get drunk, and start driving with someone inside, in the back. Its fun for them to do that every night, to showoff to each other. After that they park the car half on the pavement so that it is not easy to sleep in it.

All of these things they do, not because they want information from prisoners, but only because it is fun for them. They do not investigate, or anything, they just do it.

He told me that prisoners are from all ages, starting from as young as 12 -13 years old.

He was with a 13 year old boy, and they beat him like they do with the 20 or 30 year olds. Some get paralyzed from excessive beating. They leave them in the same spot for weeks, denying anyone who tries to help them.

He spoke about the courage of this 13 year old boy, it seemed crazy at the time: "From time to time they come in and ask us, 'What did you do?' I answered, 'Nothing, sir.'  They beat me regardless. They asked the boy, 'What did you do?' Every time he stood up and said 'I put the Independence flag on my street and down with Gaddafi!' so they beat him even harder. I used to tell him to stop saying that, but he always answered 'I am not afraid. I want them to know what I did'." He was with him for four days, but he never saw him again after he got transferred to Abu-Salim prison.

He told me about the many times that the Freedom Fighters tried to enter the prison, trying to free them. Once the FFs came and attacked. The Gaddafi goons left, fled the prison, but the FFs left without knowing the goons were gone. Then they (the prisoners) tried to break the doors by themselves. Some of them could, a lot couldn’t. So they shouted for help but none came for them. After a few hours the goons came back.

Another time NATO hit their prison, destroyed the building. Again the goons left, running for their lives. A lot of prisoners in that building managed to escape, but none could hear the others calling for help.

One of the things that he told me that is still in his mind, is that you sleep and wake up hearing people's screams and cries for help all day long. Some of the prisoners lose their minds, have mental problems, this goes along with the effects of the electricity used on them, and being beaten too much.

He knew a day before that he was leaving, so he tried to remember as much as possible of his cell-mates' homes and names. After he left, he went to their homes, telling families that their sons were alive. None of them had any idea about them, nothing.

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(Other Selected Translations are available here)