Politics
Man Testifies Ex-CPD Detective Brutally Tortured Him at Guantanamo Bay
(WTTW News)
A Mauritanian man told a Cook County judge Monday that a former Chicago police detective brutally tortured him, nearly killing him, while being held at Guantánamo Bay.
Appearing virtually dressed in a dark blazer, white button-down shirt and red tie, Mohamedou Ould Slahi testified for several hours that he was treated well at the U.S. detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, until then-CPD Detective Richard Zuley took command of the investigation into his ties to al-Qaida, the terror network responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, and the torture began.
Slahi testified that Zuley gave him a letter, purportedly from a high-ranking member of the U.S. government, ordering that his mother be detained and taken to a men’s prison and held there because he refused to tell his interrogators about terror plots.
Slahi said he was horrified and told Zuley, whom he knew as Captain Collins, that it was not fair for his mother to be sent to prison.
“He told me ‘I don’t give a f--- about fairness or justice, I care about saving lives,’” Slahi said. “I had no answer for him.”
Slahi said he later heard Zuley’s voice while he was being beaten after refusing to tell his interrogators that he was part of a terror network determined to kill Americans.
Slahi said he heard Zuley tell another guard that “I told him not to f--- with me” while he was being beaten by other guards.
“Zuley controlled everything,” Slahi testified, saying he was prevented from sleeping and was sexually assaulted by federal agents on the orders of Zuley. Slahi said he was often blindfolded during the torture, and said he was not certain if Zuley ever struck him directly.
“I started losing my mind,” Slahi said. “It went on until I confessed.”
Slahi said he falsely confessed to being involved in an attack on Toronto’s CN Tower, and then to anything he thought they wanted him to admit to.
“I was ready to give him anything he wanted,” Slahi said. “When I told him I was not involved, he tortured me. When I told him I was involved, they treated me better.”
The torture stopped once he confessed, and the condition of his confinement improved, Slahi said.
“I was so happy,” Slahi said. “He saved my life with a pillow. I wanted peace.”
Zuley also gave him a “very nice hat,” which he still has, Slahi said.
Slahi was held for 14 years, without charge or trial, before being released in 2016 and returned to Mauritania.
Slahi’s book about the torture he suffered at Guantánamo Bay alleged he was “force-fed seawater, sexually molested, subjected to a mock execution and repeatedly beaten, kicked and smashed across the face, all spiced with threats that his mother will be brought to Guantánamo and gang-raped.”
Slahi’s book was turned into a 2021 movie starring Jodie Foster, “The Mauritanian.”
Circuit Court Judge Adrienne Davis ordered Slahi to testify as she considers whether to overturn the conviction of Anthony Garrett in connection with the murder of 7-year-old Dantrell Davis, who was shot and killed by a sniper at Cabrini-Green in 1992 as he and his mother walked to school.
The hearing that will decide Garrett’s bid for a new trial will continue through Tuesday, when Zuley is scheduled to testify, and into December, Davis ordered. Nine members of Garrett’s family attended Monday’s hearing, waving at him through the glass dividing the courtroom from the gallery.
Garrett, who was present during the hearing, said Zuley beat him on at least two occasions with rubber hoses and a phone book on his torso, genitals and legs, court records show.
Jennifer Blagg, Garrett’s attorney, said like Slahi, Garrett falsely confessed after Zuley beat him and prevented him from sleeping.
“A pattern and practice has emerged of torture by Zuley,” Blagg said.
Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke opposes Garrett’s bid for a new trial.
Assistant State’s Attorney William Meyer told Davis that what happened to Dantrell “wasn’t a movie.”
“Dantrell Davis did die and this is the man who did it,” Meyer said.
Dantrell’s killing outraged the city and became a symbol of the gang violence plaguing Chicago and the city’s notorious public housing. In 1992, 936 people were killed in Chicago, setting a record that still stands. By comparison, 378 people have been killed so far this year in Chicago.
Zuley testified during Garrett’s 1994 trial that he confessed to accidentally shooting the boy while firing at rival gang members from the 10th floor of a high-rise apartment building.
The weapon used to kill Dantrell was never found, gun powder residue was not found on Garrett’s clothing, and no one testified they saw Garrett kill the boy, court records show.
Garrett later recanted his confession.
Garrett said he was not informed of his rights or given access to an attorney before he was interrogated in a small windowless room, where he was denied access to the bathroom and prevented from lying down to sleep for more than 24 hours, court records show.
Garrett was convicted and sentenced to 100 years in prison.
In 2023, the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission found that there was “sufficient, credible evidence” that Garrett was tortured by Zuley, and urged that a Cook County judge review his conviction. That finding relied, in part, on Slahi’s testimony that Zuley tortured him at Guantánamo, records show.
While the former detective has denied coercing Garrett’s confession, “there is strong reason to distrust Detective Zuley’s accounts of what transpired in light of his incontrovertible pattern and practice history of allegations of torture,” the commission concluded.
Returning from military service in 2004, Zuley retired from CPD in 2007 and worked as the director of emergency management for the Cook County Department of Public Health until 2010. Zuley served as a security administrator for the Chicago Department of Aviation until 2017.
Zuley, who joined CPD in 1970, collects an annual city taxpayer-funded pension of $94,580. Despite his extensive record of misconduct, Zuley has banked more than $1.3 million in pension payments since he retired, according to records obtained by WTTW News through a Freedom of Information Act request.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
