In a first for a former Guantánamo captive freed by a federal judge, a Syrian man now living in Europe is suing the U.S. government for damages from what he calls a ``Kafkaesque nightmare.''
The 44-page lawsuit by Abdul Razak al Janko, 32, described a decade-long odyssey of detention -- first in Taliban-era Afghanistan, where he was tortured as an alleged pro-American Israeli spy, and later in U.S. military prisons that ignored or misdiagnosed his history as a torture victim.
In addition, Janko alleges that U.S. soldiers urinated on him on his May 2002 arrival at Guantánamo, where he was subsequently subjected to solitary confinement and sleep deprivation. and beaten by a rapid-reaction force. He said he attempted to commit suicide 17 times in despair.
President Barack Obama's administration had no comment.
``We're reviewing the suit and will respond in court,'' said Dean Boyd, spokesman for the Justice Department's National Security Division.
Federal courts rebuffed an earlier bid by former Guantánamo captives to sue the Bush administration for compensation, a case called Rasul v. Rumsfeld. That case was brought by four men who were released years ago through a diplomatic deal between the United States and Britain's Tony Blair government.
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