The inmate who died at Guantanamo Bay in an apparent suicide was identified today as a Saudi military veteran and self-described Islamic holy warrior who denied he ever intended to kill Americans.
US military records show the detainee admitted having a connection to al-Qaeda, but he insisted he was little more than a Taliban foot soldier when the US invaded Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks. Saudi Arabia today identified the detainee as Abdul Rahman Maadha al-Amry.
Though it gave no details about him, US records show he was 34 and had been held without charges at the prison at America's Guantanamo Bay naval base in south-east Cuba, since February 2002. He had no lawyer, though the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights has filed a blanket legal challenge on behalf of everyone held at Guantanamo.
It was unknown why he had never sought a lawyer, though lawyers say that many detainees have little faith in the American legal system or do not understand it. "People just don't know where to turn so there are people in Guantanamo who want a lawyer but don't have one," said Zachary Katznelson, a lawyer for the British human rights group Reprieve, which represents 37 detainees.
The US military said al-Amry was not breathing when he was found yesterday by guards in Camp 5, a modern, high-security section of Guantanamo generally reserved for detainees who are considered to have intelligence value or who do not follow prison rules.
Al-Amry was said by another detainee to have been on a hunger strike in March. Military records suggest he has also refused food in the past, with his weight dropping below six-and-a-half stone at one point in 2005. He weighed over 10 stone when he entered Guantanamo.
Authorities have not revealed how they believe he killed himself in what would be the fourth suicide at the detention centre, where the US holds about 380 men on suspicion of links to al Qaida or the Taliban. The military has also not disclosed any potential motive — though Guantanamo critics say indefinite confinement in the solid wall, one-person cells for all but about two hours a day at Camps 5 and 6 has made men depressed.
"Camp 5 is just utterly grim psychologically," said Sabin Willett, a lawyer for Guantanamo detainees. "There's no question that isolation destroys human beings."
The apparent suicide comes nearly a year after two Saudi detainees and one Yemeni hanged themselves with sheets — a case that prompted the military to adopt new security measures aimed at preventing such deaths.