SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. Southern Command has been told to investigate alleged abuse by guards at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, stemming from an Oct. 6 complaint by a Marine officer, the Pentagon’s Inspector General’s office said Friday.

Marine Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, who represents a detainee at the Guantanamo Bay prison, filed the ”hot line” complaint to the Inspector Generalis office on Oct. 6.

In it, he attached a sworn statement from a Marine sergeant who works for him. The sergeant reported she listened as guards at Guantanamo Bay bragged about beating detainees and described it as a common practice.

The Marine, a paralegal who was at the U.S. Navy station in Cuba last month, alleges that several guards she talked to at the base club said they routinely hit detainees.

”From the whole conversation, I understood that striking detainees was a common practice,” the sergeant wrote. ”Everyone in the group laughed at the others’ stories of beating detainees.”

continue reading