Source: Al Jazeera

The US state department has refused to comment on a claim that guards at Guantanamo Bay prison camp abused a Chadian prisoner held there.

Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday that Mohammad al-Qurani had been beaten and tear-gassed by guards after Barack Obama, the US president, pledged to end abuse at the camp in January.

Al-Qurani made the call to Sami al-Hajj, an Al Jazeera cameraman who was himself held at Guantanamo Bay for more than six years.

Al Jazeera's Monica Villamizar said authorities at Guantanamo Bay confirmed to her that al-Qurani would be punished for making the call but did not say how.

Navy Lieutenant-Commander Brook DeWalt, a Guantanamo spokesman, said: "I can tell you that detainees are allowed weekly phone calls, detainees provide their family names and phone numbers.

If a prisoner called someone not a relative, that would be in violation of policy."

The call is believed to be the first made from Guantanamo Bay to a media organisation by an inmate.

Al-Qurani said in one incident he had been tear-gassed and beaten so badly a tooth was broken.

Dewalt said the authorities at Guantanamo had no evidence to support al-Qurani's claims.

In January a US judge ordered the release of al-Qurani, who was only 15-years-old when he was captured in Pakistan in 2001, from Guantanamo Bay after saying there was no evidence to justify his detention.

He is currently in a separate camp in Guantanamo called Camp Iguana where prisoners go after they have been approved for release ahead of being transfered.

Cory Crider, a member of al-Qurani's legal team, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday it was hard to ascertain how al-Qurani had been treated in recent months as the situation varied from camp to camp within the facility and also there had been "ramping up" of secrecy in the new administration.

However Crider said the last time she saw al-Qurani before his transfer to Camp Iguana she had seen abrasions on his hands "that I don't really think he did himself".

"I think that where he is now is a significant, significant improvement over where he was before but there's no question ... that over the years this kid has been seriously mistreated," she said.

Case raised

The Chadian ambassador to the US told Al Jazeera on Tuesday he would raise claims of the abuse of one of its citizens at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba with the US authorities.

I will bring these allegations to my authorities and also will talk to my counterparts at the state department," Mahmoud al-Bashir said.

Al-Bashir said he would raise the case with the Office of War Crimes, which advises Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, on international and domestic war crimes issues.

The envoy also said al-Qurani was subject to mistreatment when he was detained in Pakistan in 2001.

"When he was detained