John McCain was not tortured while being held as a prisoner of war, the chief guard of his Vietnamese prison has claimed.
By Jon Swaine
Last Updated: 8:49AM BST 14 Oct 2008
Mr McCain was allegedly in hospital for the first month of his captivity Photo: AP
Nguyen Tien Tran said: "We never tortured McCain. On the contrary, we saved his life, curing him with extremely valuable medicines that at times were not available to our own wounded."
Mr McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, who was a Navy pilot during the Vietnam war, regularly refers to his experiences after being captured when his plane was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967.
He was taken to Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton", where he was kept for more than five years and subjected to such brutal beatings that he attempted suicide, he later recalled.
Today he is unable to lift his arms above his head and, it recently emerged, finds activities requiring intensive use of his hands - such as typing - extremely painful.
John McCain was not tortured in Vietnam prison, guard claims - Telegraph