Guantanamo Diary’s Larry Siems supports Antigone’s campaign on torture

A year ago, Associazione Antigone launched a campaign for the introduction of the crime of torture into Italy’s penal code with a petition that reached more than 50.000 signatures (you can still sign it here.)

The campaign has also a new supporter:  writer and human rights activist Larry Siems.

In this video, Siems speaks about “Guantanamo Diary”, a book he edited – written by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a prisoner for 12 years in the US military detention camp of Guantanamo Bay.

The video is filmed and edited by Andrea Oleandri, Antigone’s communication manager.

Slahi’s extraordinary account is finally published after years of litigation — and more than 2,500 redactions by the US government. The 466 pages were handwritten in his cell at Camp Echo in 2005, detailing the tortures and deprivations he suffered.

One of the tortures consisted in playing music at full volume continuously, night and day, with earphones that the prisoners couldn’t take off. One of the song used was Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen.