Dying father of Guantanamo prisoner pleads to see his son

Khaleej Times – 19 September 2005

DUBAI – The dying father of a Bahraini detainee held at Guantanamo Bay has made a final heart-rending plea to see his son, the Bahraini newspaper Gulf Daily News reported on Saturday.

Mohammed Al Dossary, who suffers from throat cancer, is urging Bahraini authorities and rights activists for help in getting Juma released, said the paper.

Al Dossary was admitted to the intensive care unit at Dammam Hospital, in Saudi Arabia, on Thursday for complications following surgery. He has not seen his son Juma for nearly four years and is said to be in and out of consciousness.

Khaleej Times – 19 September 2005

DUBAI – The dying father of a Bahraini detainee held at Guantanamo Bay has made a final heart-rending plea to see his son, the Bahraini newspaper Gulf Daily News reported on Saturday.

Mohammed Al Dossary, who suffers from throat cancer, is urging Bahraini authorities and rights activists for help in getting Juma released, said the paper.

Al Dossary was admitted to the intensive care unit at Dammam Hospital, in Saudi Arabia, on Thursday for complications following surgery. He has not seen his son Juma for nearly four years and is said to be in and out of consciousness.

The plea was made Friday by the dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, which has been responsible for co-ordinating between relatives of the detainees and lawyers in the US

“His family contacted us and conveyed the request of Juma’s father to see his son before he dies,” its president Nabeel Rajab told the paper.

“The father even sent a letter to the centre before undergoing the operation, pleading to see his son for fear that he would die without having the chance to do so,” he added.

Rajab said that even though there was very little hope that the father and son will be reunited, he would speak to the attorneys and the US Embassy to check if anything could be done.

“There are many detainees, who if released and went back home, will find that they had lost loved ones without the opportunity of being by their side,” he said.

Juma, a divorced father of an eight-year-old girl, has maintained his innocence.