Guantanamo detainee 'rejects treatment'

San Juan, Puerto Rico: A 59-year-old Guantanamo Bay detainee has refused to have a required medical procedure performed on his heart at the US military base, one of his attorneys said on Sunday.

Saifullah A. Paracha, a Pakistani multimillionaire, will not agree to have a cardiac catheterisation done at the base because he believes its medical facilities and backups are inadequate for the operation, said Zachary Katznelson of the London-based human rights group Reprieve.

"This is a completely new procedure for Guantanamo. Paracha very well might need open heart surgery, and that has never been done before at Guantanamo," Katznelson said, adding that he spoke to his client on Saturday about the planned operation.

A motion filed by Paracha's legal team to block the medical procedure, which doctors have scheduled at Guantanamo's hospital for this month, was expected to be heard yesterday in a federal court in Washington.

Navy Cmdr Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokes-man, said Guantanamo has a "first class medical facility for detainees" and rejected the charge that the detention centre in southeast Cuba was not equip-ped to successfully perform the catheterisation.

"The assertion that this detainee's medical condition is "completely new" at Guantanamo is patently false.

A detainee was treated successfully for a serious heart condition by a team of doctors at Guantanamo in 2003," Gordon said.