Yemen family wants Guantanamo inmate’s death probed

SANAA (Reuters) – The family of a Yemeni prisoner said to
have committed suicide at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison is
refusing to bury him, demanding an investigation into his
death, the family lawyer said on Saturday.

U.S. authorities said on Friday it handed over the body of
Ali Abdullah Ahmed and those of two Saudi inmates it says
committed suicide at the prison in Cuba last week.

Their families have questioned the possibility that the
men, all devout Muslims, have taken their own lives, saying
that would amount to a major violation of the Islamic faith.

“The family … is refusing to bury him and are asking for
an autopsy to know the real reason behind his death,” Khaled
al-Ansi, also a human rights activist, told Reuters.

Muslims believe that the utmost honor and respect that can
be given to the dead is to bury them as quickly as possible.

The U.S. military has said the three detainees had hanged
themselves with clothes and bed sheets in their cells. They
were the first prisoners to die at the Guantanamo base in Cuba
since Washington began sending suspected al Qaeda and Taliban
captives there in 2002.

Ansi said Yemen’s public prosecutor has approved a request
by Ahmed’s family to investigate the death.

Last Thursday, Yemen said it had asked the United States to
probe the incident and expressed concern over the fate of other
inmates still held at the facility.

The deaths increased pressure on the United States to close
down the facility. Almost all the prisoners at Guantanamo are
being held without charge and some have been detained for more
than three years.