Interpreter for F.B.I. Thinks Interrogators Beat Terror Suspect
16 Apr 09 | NYT
An interpreter for the F.B.I. during an interrogation of a suspect in the terrorist bombing of the American Embassy in Kenya in 1998 now says that she heard sounds and pleading that led her to believe that the suspect was being beaten, and that she was so traumatized by the incident that she fled from the room, newly filed court documents show.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who wrote that the interpreter made the claim only recently, have provided a summary of her statement to a lawyer for the suspect, Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-’Owhali who was convicted in 2001 in the attack, which killed more than 200 people, and was sentenced to life in prison.
The interpreter’s account is vivid and detailed, the summary showed. During the interrogation, in Kenya, she said, she was separated from Mr. al-’Owhali, a Saudi, by a partition, which prevented him from seeing her face. But she was able to hear him, she said, and “from sounds emanating from the interrogation room,” she concluded that he was being beaten.
At one point, he shouted to her, “Sister, please make them stop beating me,” the document said. >>>
