Guantanamo Detainee Found Dead
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – A Saudi Arabian detainee died Wednesday at Guantanamo Bay prison and the American military said he apparently committed suicide. “They tried to save his life but he was pronounced dead,” said Mario Alvarez, a Miami-based spokesman for the command.
It would be the fourth suicide at Guantanamo since the prison camp opened in January 2002. On June 10, 2006, two Saudi detainees and one Yemeni hanged themselves with sheets. Details, including the prisoner’s name and manner of death, were not released.
A spokesman for detention operations, Navy Cmdr. Rick Haupt, declined to comment, referring questions to the Miami-based Southern Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Caribbean and Latin America.
The death came as the American military prepared to try two detainees – Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni, and Omar Khadr, a Canadian who was 15 when he was captured in a firefight with American troops in Afghanistan. Their arraignment is scheduled to proceed on Monday at Guantanamo as planned, Navy Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, said late Wednesday.
Mr. Khadr on Wednesday fired his American attorneys, leaving him without defense counsel as his arraignment approaches, his former American military attorney said.
“He doesn’t trust American lawyers, and I don’t particularly blame him,” said American Marine Lieutenant Colonel Colby Vokey, who was taken off the case Wednesday. “The United States is responsible for his interrogation and his treatment under a process that is patently unfair.”
The military toughened security at the prison camp following the previous suicides and an uprising last spring, taking measures to remove access to light fixtures and other possible makeshift weapons.
About 380 men are held at the isolated prison camp on suspicion of links to Al Qaeda or the Taliban.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is conducting an ongoing investigation into the three previous suicides.
A cultural adviser was helping the military handle the remains. “The remains of the deceased detainee are being treated with the utmost respect,” the military said.
