http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Bahrain/10129758.html
06/03/2007 11:22 PM | By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
Manama: The lawyer of the two Bahrainis held at Guantanamo yesterday said that suicides should be expected given the conditions at the world’s most famous prison where detainees are isolated in their cells for up to 22 hours a day.
“When people are held indefinitely and in isolation thousands of miles from home, hopelessness and despair are inevitable. Where there is such hopelessness and despair, it is inevitable that some people will choose death over life,” Joshua Colangelo-Bryan said.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Bahrain/10129758.html
06/03/2007 11:22 PM | By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
Manama: The lawyer of the two Bahrainis held at Guantanamo yesterday said that suicides should be expected given the conditions at the world’s most famous prison where detainees are isolated in their cells for up to 22 hours a day.
“When people are held indefinitely and in isolation thousands of miles from home, hopelessness and despair are inevitable. Where there is such hopelessness and despair, it is inevitable that some people will choose death over life,” Joshua Colangelo-Bryan said.
A Saudi Arabian detainee died last week at the US-run prison camp, and the military said the prisoner apparently committed suicide. If it is confirmed, the suicide will be the fourth since the prison opened. Bahraini detainee Juma Al Dossari has attempted to kill himself 13 times.
“When I heard that a Guantanamo Bay detainee died on Wednesday, I feared immediately that it was Al Dossari,” Colangelo-Bryan said in a statement to Gulf News conveyed by rights activist Nabeel Rajab.
“I was also reminded of the terrible events of October 15, 2005 when Al Dossari attempted to kill himself. After the suicide attempt, a military officer asked me if I had any idea why he did it. The answer should have been obvious.”
Al Dossari has been at Guantanamo for several years. The government has not charged him with a crime or even accused him of taking any action against the US. He was held alone in a solid wall cell for 22 to 24 hours a day. He had been short shackled, threatened with death and severely beaten. Interrogators had told him that he would be imprisoned for the next 50 years and that there was no law at Guantanamo, the lawyer said.
Things have only gotten worse for Al Dossari and the other detainees since that day. Al Dossari, like all but three of the 380 detainees, still has not been charged with any crime.
