Report alleges Afghan prisoners mistreated at US secret jail

A study by a New York think tank based on interviews with former detainees concludes that prisoner abuses continue at the US military's secret prisons abroad, despite pledges from the Obama administration.

The Open Society Foundation has interviewed prisoners from the US jail on Afghanistan’s Bagram airbase and says conditions and treatment violate both American and international law for detention facilities.

According to their descriptions, they were held in isolation cells, deprived of food and natural light. The detainees are also saying they were unable to carry out religious duties.

When Barack Obama became president, he took a very tough stance against inhuman detention conditions at the American military prisons. For example, he wanted to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

And some reforms were carried out since 2009.

Reporters were allowed to tour the main detention facility in Afghanistan, and the Red Cross was granted better access to the detainees.

But those interviewed are claiming they were detained after the changes were implemented.

If those facts are true, that could cast a shadow on Obama administration’s widely popular detention reforms.