Ibrahim Ahmad Hamid, a 53-year-old Palestinian refugee, was arrested on 8 August 2008 in the United States for his alleged involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, only to be forcibly returned to Lebanon on 25 May 2010 after 22 months in Henderson County Correctional Center in Kentucky, USA. The Lebanese authorities are currently trying him on charges of murder and "forming a terrorist group," for which he was tortured in order to extract false confessions. Alkarama fears that he will be heavily sentenced based on concocted confessions.
On 3 March 2011, Alkarama sent Ibrahim Hamid's case as an urgent appeal to the Special Rapporteur on Torture, requesting his intervention with the Lebanese and US authorities.
Ibrahim Ahmad Hamid, was born in Ain el-Helwe refugee camp in southern Lebanon. He lives with his wife and four sons and works as a car mechanic. He currently holds both a Lebanese residency card and an American green card, which allows him to travel and work legally in the United States.
On 8 August 2008, while he was returning from Denmark to the United States, Ibrahim Hamid was arrested by the FBI at New Jersey Airport. He was imprisoned for 22 months on suspicion of his involvement in the 26 February 1993 World Trade Center bombings. He spent 22 months at the Henderson County Correctional Facility in Kentucky, during which time he was frequently interrogated by the FBI at their headquarters in Newark, New Jersey.
During his 22 months incarceration, the US authorities never charged Ibrahim Hamid, rather opting to facilitate his extraordinary rendition to Beirut, Lebanon. On 25 March 2010, with his head covered and his hands and feet in shackles, he was put on a plane to Beirut.
By agreeing to his refoulement, the US authorities contradicted Article 3 of the UN Convention on Torture, which states that "No State Party shall expel, return ("refouler") or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture."
The FBI knew full well that Ibrahim Hamid would be in danger of being tortured due to the accusations held against him by the Lebanese authorities, namely "forming a terrorist group."
These facts were however ignored, and upon arrival in Beirut, Ibrahim Hamid was immediately arrested by Lebanese General Security forces at Beirut airport and taken to their detention centre in Adlia. Officers from Information Bureau of the General Security Directorate interrogated him for four successive days.
Following the intensive questioning, Lebanese authorities then moved Ibrahim Hamid between various locations where he was continuously tortured, as the authorities attempted to extract false confessions.
Following the successive torture sessions, Ibrahim Hamid was taken to a police station located in Sidon's Palace of Justice, only to be transferred to the Ministry of Defense for four days, where he was severely tortured, beaten and blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back. He was forced to stand for hours on end, prevented from sleeping, and abused and threatened without relent. Ultimately Ibrahim Hamid signed the confessions without ever reading their contents.
After conceding the false confessions, Ibrahim Hamid was taken back to the police station in Sidon's Palace of Justice for a few hours, before being returned to the Information Branch Centre in Beirut, where he was detained for 11 days. During this time he was punched and kicked, as security officers forced him to make new confessions. He was again transferred to Nabatieh Prison in southern Lebanon, then finally moved to Roumieh Prison, where he is still being detained awaiting trial.
His first hearing before Beirut's Military Court is set for 22 March 2011. The trial is based on confessions extracted under torture and is in violation of Article 15 of the Convention against Torture, which stipulates that "Each State Party shall ensure that any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made."
Lebanon is party to the Convention against Torture, which in ratified in 2000, as is expected to uphold the edicts of the Convention.
Alkarama fears that Ibrahim Hamid will receive a heavy sentence based on confessions extracted under severe torture. Alkarama has requested that the Special Rapporteur on Torture intervene to: first, remind the United States of America of its international obligations not to forcibly return foreigners under Article 3 of the Convention against Torture to which the US is a party; second, to intervene urgently with the Lebanese authorities to guarantee that the evidence extracted under torture will not be used in the coming trial, and particularly if the sentence is death by execution.