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Family won't bury Guantanamo son
17/06/2006 20:30 - (SA)
Sanaa - The family of a Yemeni prisoner said to have committed suicide at the United States Guantanamo Bay prison is refusing to bury him, demanding an investigation into his death.
US authorities 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 - on Friday.
The dead prisoners' families do not believe that the men, devout Muslims, took their own lives.
They said this was a major violation of the Islamic faith.
"The family is refusing to bury Ali Abdullah Ahmed and is asking for an autopsy to know the real reason behind his death," said the family's lawyer, Khaled al-Ansi, who is also a human rights activist.
The US military has said the three detainees hanged themselves with clothes and bed sheets in their cells.
They are the first prisoners to die at the Guantanamo base in Cuba since Washington began sending suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban captives to the prison in 2002.
Ansi said Yemen's public prosecutor had approved a request by Ahmed's family to investigate the death.
Last Thursday, Yemen said it had asked the US to probe the incident and expressed concern over the fate of other inmates still held at the prison.
The deaths have increased pressure on the US to close the prison.
Almost all the prisoners at Guantanamo are being held without charges being laid against them.
Some have been detained for more than three years.
- Reuters
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