Jose Padilla may face life in prison after being convicted of conspiracy with Al Qaeda to wage jihad, but his lawyers are still seeking to sue the government over what they call “gross physical and psychological abuse:” Padilla sues US officials over confinement.

Convicted Al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla is seeking to hold former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and 59 other US officials responsible for what his lawyers say were abusive and unconstitutional tactics used against Mr. Padilla while he was held in military custody as an enemy combatant from 2002 to 2006.

Lawyers working on Padilla’s behalf filed the civil lawsuit earlier this year in federal court in South Carolina. It was publicly disclosed by the lawyers this week.

“Mr. Padilla suffered gross physical and psychological abuse at the hands of federal officials as part of a scheme of abusive interrogation intended to break down Mr. Padilla’s humanity and his will to live,” the 30-page complaint says.

“The grave violations suffered by Padilla were not isolated occurrences by rogue lower-level officials,” the suit says. Besides Mr. Rumsfeld, it names Defense Secretary Robert Gates, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, and former Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lowell Jacoby, among others, who “personally ordered and/or approved Mr. Padilla’s detention and interrogation program.”