Judge Blocks Force-Feeding Of Guantanamo Prisoner

This ruling is unprecedented.  A judge says a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay cannot be force-fed, at least temporarily.

U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler issued an order Friday afternoon preventing the military from force-feeding Syrian national Abu Wa’el Dhiab until a hearing set for next Wednesday on a legal petition he filed seeking to permanently bar so-called enteral feedings. Kessler’s order also prohibits authorities at the island prison from using force to move Dhiab out of his cell to receive nutrition, a practice used when prisoners refuse to comply with demands to submit to the feedings.

“Respondents are temporarily restrained from any Forcible Cell Extractions of Petitioner for purposes of enteral feeding and any enteral feeding of Petitioner until May 21, 2014,” Kessler wrote in her order (posted here).

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale said Guantanamo officials will abide by the direction.

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.