WASHINGTON, Nov 2: A top Al Qaeda suspect has recently escaped from a US-run detention facility in Afghanistan, Pentagon officials told reporters on Wednesday. The suspect, Omar al-Farouq, was a top Al Qaeda operative in southeast Asia and was allegedly tortured during detention. Officials said they can no longer testify against the soldier who allegedly mistreated him because he is no longer in US custody.

Farouq was one of Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenants until Indonesian authorities captured him in the summer of 2002 and turned him over to the United States.

A Pentagon official in Washington said that Farouq escaped from a US detention facility in Bagram, Afghanistan, on July 10.

An Army lawyer for Sgt Alan J. Driver, a reservist accused of abusing Bagram detainees, had earlier asked military authorities where Farouq was and what the army had done to find him in time for Driver’s court proceedings. Capt. John B. Parker, a prosecutor, said Farouq and three others escaped from the Bagram detention centre and have not been found.

Members of Driver’s company, testifying by speaker phone in court on Tuesday, said the detainee Driver is accused of abusing Farouq, who was featured in a Time magazine cover story in September 2002. The article, titled “Confessions of an Al Qaeda Terrorist,” detailed his plans to carry out attacks in southeast Asia.