Yahoo News Chicago Cops Deny Running 'Black Site' Prison
The Chicago Police Department has denied claims it is operating a secretive facility where criminal suspects are denied basic rights.
Officials said in a statement that reports of a so-called black site at Homan Square on the city's west side were "inaccurate and misleading".
Allegations of police misconduct at the facility have spawned a protest movement known as #Gitmo2Chicago.
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has even taken notice of the story, tweeting on Saturday: "If torture & killing are done by US they're legal ... #gitmo2chicago".
More than 100 demonstrators gathered outside Homan Square on Saturday, and further rallies are planned.
A report by the Guardian last week alleged that police were holding suspects at the facility without access to lawyers or relatives.
The newspaper described the location as an "off-the-books interrogation compound", where suspects have been shackled and physically abused.
In Sunday's three-page fact-sheet, the police department said Homan Square "serves a number of functions, some of which are sensitive and some of which are not, however it is not a secret facility".
The last six words were in bold type.
The statement said Homan Square is open to members of the public to recover items of evidence from completed criminal investigations.
"Portions of the facility are sensitive," it adds. "Homan Square is the base of operations for officers working undercover assignments.
"These men and women dress in plain clothes and work to disrupt gang activity and clear drug markets out of neighbourhoods.
"Advertising their base of operations could put their lives at risk, which is why Homan Square features little signage."
It says allegations that physical violence is routinely used during police interviews are "unequivocally false".
A claim, reported in the Guardian, that a death at the facility may have been the result of police brutality is "offensive" and "not supported by any facts whatsoever", the statement adds.
The fact-sheet cites news reports of a post-mortem examination which found the man in question had died of an accidental heroin overdose.
The statement also sought to debunk another claim that police had turned up the temperature in an interrogation room to squeeze a confession out of a suspect.
The department says it is impossible to regulate the heat in individual rooms at the building.
Activists outside Homan Square on Saturday were demanding a town hall meeting.
Reverend Greg Greer, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said: "If Chicago Police Department doesn't have anything to hide, then open up the doors!"
The police statement says journalists have been invited regularly to tour the facility.
