Guantanamo Is Living Hell - Teather

3.32.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 5th Dec 2007

Sarah Teather MP in her Brent office

Responding to news that an inmate at Guantánamo Bay slashed his throat with a sharpened fingernail, Sarah Teather, constituency MP for Jamil el-Banna and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Guantánamo Bay, said: "This news will come as a shock to those families who have loved ones being held at the camp. That prisoners will go to such desperate measures is proof of the appalling conditions in which they are forced to live.

"The claim that self-harm incidents are a tactic to discredit US forces is grossly offensive. The men in Guantánamo are being locked up indefinitely without trial, charge, or hope. Is it any wonder they want to bring this living hell to an end?

"Guantánamo is a scar on the conscience of all those nations that value democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The international community needs to redouble their efforts to have the camp closed for good."