The three men — Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed — have provided an account that is the most detailed description to date of life inside the prison and issues the first detailed allegations of abuse.

The men — who were released from Guantanamo in March and flown home to England, where police freed them without charge — describe an experience of isolation and brutality at the U.S. base.

Their account alleges that they were "kept in cages infested with rats." One said he was put in a "cell smeared with excrement." All say they were subjected to beatings.

Ahmed claims a guard "kicked me about 20 times to my left thigh and punched me as well. I had a large bruise on my leg and couldn't walk for nearly one month."

Iqbal said guards "would kick the Koran, throw it into the toilet, and generally disrespect it."

The men declined to talk to ABC News directly about their account, but their attorney Gareth Peirce said they hope it illuminates the plight of the 586 detainees still held at Guantanamo.

"It's to try to break through that wall of silence, to make a judgment about the legitimacy and legality of what is going on in Guantanamo Bay," Peirce said.

Unlike the abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, there are no photographs showing the alleged beatings at Guantanamo and no way to independently verify the claims.

U.S. military officials today said there is simply no foundation to the men's stories of abuse. They said that while a guard did once kick a Koran, guards are now given extensive training in religious sensitivity and added that conditions in general have greatly improved at Guantanamo.

Abuse Yields False Confessions?

But the former prisoners say that after a year and a half of confinement, the harsh treatment led them to make false confessions during interrogations.

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