Guatanamo detainee from Yemen commits apparent suicide

Jun 2, 2009, 23:38 GMT

Washington - The apparent suicide of a Yemeni detainee at the Guantanamo Bay prison on Cuba was under investigation, the US military announced Tuesday.

Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih, 31, was found 'unresponsive and not breathing' during a routine check late Monday evening, the Joint Task Force-Guantanamo said in a statement on the US Southern Command website.

The prisoner, also known as al-Hanashi, has been held at Guantanamo since February 2002.

When he was found, medical personnel rushed to the scene and tried to resuscitate him. The military called the death an 'apparent suicide.'

An autopsy is to be performed as part of a probe by Navy investigators, after which al-Hanashi's remains are to be repatriated to Yemen in a 'culturally sensitive and religiously appropriate manner,' the military said.

Al-Hanashi is charged with travelling to Afghanistan in 2001 to participate in jihad, and had admitted to fighting alongside the Taliban, according to the statement. The military said he had also lived in al-Qaeda guest houses before his capture at Mazar-e-Sharif following the uprising there.

The death appeared to be the fifth suicide in the controversial seven-year-long history of the Guantanamo prison, where at one time up to 800 prisoners were being held. Only a few have been charged with crimes, while disputed military tribunals have proceeded in fits and starts.

There are currently 245 prisoners remaining in Guantanamo. US President Barack Obama has declared he intends to close the facility by January 2010, but is running into a complex set of legal and political problems. Foreign countries are dragging their feet at Obama's request to take in prisoners even as US politicians resist the suggestion that some may end up in their own backyards.