PARIS, Dec 17 (AFP) - The Syrian driver of two French journalists taken hostage in Iraq in August is suing the US army for torture and ill-treatment, his lawyer, Jacques Verges said Friday.
The driver, Mohammad al-Jundi, was captured with Radio France Internationale reporter Christian Chesnot and Le Figaro journalist Georges Malbrunot on August 20 south of Baghdad and found in a house in Fallujah Nov. 12 when US troops invaded the city. The two French reporters still are missing.
Verges said that after being found by American troops, al-Jundi was taken in handcuffs to a military base where he was beaten and kicked.
Verges said al-Jundi claimed to have been thrice threatened with mock executions and tortured with electric shocks.
He alleged his client had been denied medicines and forced to sleep on a pile of plastic rice sacks.
Al-Jundi came to Paris under French protection, and Verges said he had the same rights as any French citizen to sue the US authorities.
Al-Jundi had lived as a refugee in Iraq for several years, and had worked as both driver and interpreter for the French journalists, the longest-held Western hostages in Iraq.
12/17/2004 18:52 GMT - AFP Copyright © 2004 Agence France Presse
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