Human rights lawyers on March 26 filed an emergency motion (PDF [5]) in the US District Court for the District of Columbia [6] alleging that guards at Guantánamo Bay have denied drinking water and sufficient clothing to a Yemeni prisoner. The motion was filed only a day before a fact-finding visit to the US detention center in Cuba by the International Committee of the Red Cross [7] (ICRC), and the lawyers contend that such treatment is being used to undermine an ongoing hunger strike [8] by Musa'ab Omar al-Madhwani [9] and 30 additional inmates.
In support of their argument that al-Madhwani's issue is a matter of life and death, his lawyers also attached to the motion an affidavit from psychiatrist and retired general Stephen Xenakis [10], who opined that the hunger protest and lack of adequate drinking water increases the prisoners' chance of incurring "gastrointestinal infections and a quick demise." Although the US Department of Justice [11] (DoJ) has not yet filed a response to the motion, a spokesperson for the prison is reported to have said [12] that all prisoners are provided with bottled water and that the tap water is safe to drink. White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest [13] on March 27 told reporters [14] that President Barack Obama and his administration are "closely monitoring the hunger strikes at Guantanamo Bay."