Lindh was tortured, say lawyers

A photograph showing the suspected US Taliban fighter, John Lindh, bound and blindfolded proves that he was tortured into confessing, his lawyers told a Virginia court this week.

The picture, which shows the 21-year-old Californian naked and handcuffed in a metal container at a US base near Kandahar last December, seems sure to undermine US attempts to rebut criticism of how it is treating prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

It could also prove crucial in deciding Mr Lindh's fate. Federal prosecutors admitted in a pretrial hearing on Monday that they have no direct evidence that he killed any Americans, and their case that he conspired to do so would rest largely on the disputed confession.

But prosecutors defended the FBI's treatment of Mr Lindh, telling Judge Thomas Ellis that the prisoner had been wrapped in duvets "within an hour or two".

"Within two days, he was provided medical scrubs to wear, and was released from the stretcher," Judge Ellis was told.

Mr Lindh appeared in the court in Alexandria, Virginia, but he stayed silent.

The judge, however, did speak, apparently questioning the legitimacy of the defendant's story.

When Mr Lindh's lawyer, George Harris, argued his client had been learning military, not terrorist, tactics at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan, the judge blurted out: "What was he doing over there?"

He immediately apologised, but when the defence requested that the prosecution provide a list of enemy soldiers held in the Mazar-i-Sharif prison where Mr Lindh was kept, he demanded of Mr Harris: "Have you ever been in a war?"