Sick detainee can't leave Gitmo

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

The U.S. military is not required to send a Guantanamo Bay detainee to a civilian hospital for medical treatment, a federal judge said yesterday, leaving the prisoner to choose between having a heart procedure performed at the military base or not at all.

Saifullah A. Paracha, a 59-year-old multimillionaire Pakistani businessman and television producer, argued that the procedure was too risky to be handled anywhere but in a cardiac unit. He asked to be transferred to a hospital in the United States or Pakistan.

The procedure, called cardiac catheterization, is used to detect heart problems such as blockages. A doctor inserts a plastic tube into a vein and slides it into the heart or nearby coronary arteries to measure blood pressure or oxygen levels.

If something goes wrong, Mr. Paracha's attorney said, doctors could need to perform emergency heart surgery.

Doctors successfully completed an identical procedure in 2003 at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Justice Department said. Special medical equipment and personnel were available, attorneys said, making transferring Mr. Paracha an unnecessary security risk.

U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman agreed, noting that the government regularly decides how best to treat civilian prisoners inside the United States and that judges rarely intervene.

Mr. Paracha twice met with Osama bin Laden, but his attorney said it was in hopes of landing a television interview. Mr. Paracha, who lived in the United States for 16 years, denies making investments for al Qaeda, translating statements for bin Laden, joining in explosives smuggling or recommending that nuclear weapons be used against U.S. troops.

Doctors will not perform the procedure without Mr. Paracha's consent. Attorney Gaillard Hunt said Mr. Paracha, who has a history of heart problems, may decide not to be treated if the procedure is done at the base.

"That's true of any prisoner anywhere," Judge Friedman replied. "There are lots of people who aren't detainees anywhere who choose not to have procedures done that their doctors believe should be done. If that's his choice, that's his choice."

Judge Friedman said he was troubled by Mr. Hunt's accusations that military officials shackled Mr. Paracha's hands and feet to his hospital bed during previous medical tests and did not release him even to eat.

In legal documents, Mr. Paracha's attorneys said there would be diplomatic consequences in Pakistan if he died.

"His death in U.S. captivity would be a blow to American prestige in that area, even under the best of circumstances," attorneys wrote. "If anything happened to him while he was being treated in an irregular or inadequate facility, the reaction would be unpredictable."

Paracha's attorneys can appeal Judge Friedman's ruling.

In July, his son, Uzair Paracha, was convicted of agreeing to help an al Qaeda operative sneak into the United States. A U.S. District Court judge in New York sentenced the son to 30 years in federal prison.