US Supreme Court to Hear Plea by Guantanamo Detainee on Access to Detention Info

The US government says it has "state secrets privilege" to withhold information, due to national security concerns.

Guantanamo Bay first opened after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

(File Photo)

The case of the custodial torture of Palestinian national Abu Zubaydah, an Al Qaeda suspect once alleged to be Osama Bin Laden's senior lieutenant, will be brought to the US Supreme Court on Wednesday, 6 October, AP reported.

Zubaydah, who was held prisoner at a Polish black site between 2002-2003, and at Guantanamo Bay since 2006, wants information about his custody from two ex-CIA contractors who allegedly tortured him at the secret CIA site in Poland.

But the US Government, via the CIA and the Justice Department, cites the "state secrets privilege" that is necessary for the protection of national security information, and refuses to meet the demands of Zubaydah.

As per the case documents, the US government says that it values the "identities of its foreign intelligence partners and the location of former CIA detention facilities in their countries", and such information "could not be declassified without risking undue harm to the national security", Yahoo News reported.

Zubaydah was the first post 9/11 detainee to be subject to harsh torture techniques like waterboarding, stress positions, and solitary confinement.

According to a 2014 US Senate report, the CIA does not believe anymore that he was linked to 9/11, but continues to keep him locked up in Guantanamo because of his "unrepentant support" to Al Qaeda.

A federal appeals court had said that giving Zubaydah access to the information he wants should be determined by a judge, even if US government wants to keep it a secret, AP had report.

(With inputs from AP and Yahoo News.)