Terror Suspect's Family Claims He Was Tortured By Spanish Police

The family and legal team of a British resident jailed in Spain as a terror suspect claim he is the victim of the Spanish equivalent of Guantánamo Bay. Mohammed Fahsi has been detained for more than 18 months after being arrested by Spanish police who claimed to have struck a blow against a recruiting network that was sending suicide bombers to Iraq.

Mr Fahsi, 40, was granted residency in Britain two years ago after marrying a Nottingham primary school teacher, Khadija Podd. They have three children.

She said: "They detained him and the other members of the legal mosque association which worked in tandem with the town council, near Barcelona," said Ms Podd who has been married to Mr Fahsi for 10 years.

"Then they took him and the others to a detention center in Madrid, where they tortured them for four days."

While her Moroccan-born husband is being treated well in Mansilla de La Mullas prison near León, she said that when he was first arrested, he and others suffered "cold, sleep deprivation, extreme light, beating, threats, forcing them to denounce their religion, trying to coerce them to lie and incriminate fellow detainees".

Ms Podd, a graduate in philosophy and comparative religion from King's College London who met Mr Fahsi when teaching in Spain, said that one of the lawyers in the case referred to Spain as "the other Guantánamo".

"It's pretty shocking that these sorts of abuses are going on in Spain," said Clive Stafford-Smith, a human rights lawyer, who has been following the case.

"The parallels with Guantánamo are manifest and the British government should be acting to get him out, too. We are talking about human rights not British rights and the British government should be standing up for human rights everywhere."

Mr Fahsi, his brother, Munir, and 18 other people were arrested in January 2006.

Asked about the torture allegations a spokesman for the Civil Guard said: "Absolutely not. You have to have evidence before you make these types of accusations ... "

"Lots of people make complaints like this. It has become very normal. This is the first line of defence of the criminal."

He denied prisoners were kept naked and said they might be blindfolded while being moved from one place to another.