SAN JUAN (Puerto Rico) - A YEMENI detainee at Guantanamo Bay who died of an apparent suicide this week was not on a hunger strike at the time of his death, but he had been force-fed with a nasal tube in the past, a prison spokesman said on Wednesday.
Navy Lieutenant Commander Brook DeWalt said the prisoner, who the military said was found unresponsive and not breathing in his cell Monday night, had resumed eating on his own 'in mid-May'. He said he did not know if the longtime Guantanamo detainee had ever attempted suicide in the past.
The military has refused to reveal how they believe Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al-Hanashi died in his cell, other than saying it was an apparent suicide. His is the fifth apparent suicide at the isolated US prison, which President Barack Obama hopes to close by Jan 22.
Mr DeWalt said the Naval Criminal Investigative Service has started an investigation to determine the cause and manner of Al-Hanashi's death, and that Guantanamo commanders are reviewing procedures in the wake of his apparent suicide.
The military has also not disclosed any potential motive for the Yemeni's suicide, although Guantanamo critics say indefinite confinement has clearly caused desperation among many detainees held for years without charges on suspicion of links to Al-Qaeda or the Taleban.
Attorney David Remes identified the dead man as one of six inmates held in the prison's psychiatric ward along with his client, Adnan Latif.
He said all the prisoners in the ward had been force-fed a liquid nutrition mix through a tube inserted in their noses and down their throats and that Al-Hanashi had been the only one force-fed in a restraint chair.
Mr DeWalt said he couldn't disclose if al-Hanashi, who allegedly had fought alongside the Taleban and who had been held without charge at Guantanamo since February 2002, was in a ward for psychologically troubled captives. Military records show he was about 31.
The apparent suicide of the Yemeni has underscored an 'urgent need' for Washington and Yemen to figure out what to do with detainees from that Middle Eastern country who are locked up in Guantanamo, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
Discussions over where to send the Yemeni detainees have complicated President Obama's plan to close the prison. The Obama administration has been negotiating with Saudi Arabia and Yemen for months to send them to Saudi terrorist rehabilitation centres. -- AP
