JEDDAH, 13 June 2006 — Families of two Saudis who died at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay on Saturday said the men could not have committed suicide because they were devout Muslims, local newspapers reported yesterday.

They say that suicide is prohibited in Islam and every Muslim knows that severe punishments await in the hereafter those who take their own lives.

Saudi authorities identified the two Saudis as Manie ibn Shaman Al-Utaibi, 26, and Yasser ibn Talal Al-Zahrani, 22. The US military said the detainees, along with a Yemeni man, had hanged themselves.

“I am confident my son did not commit suicide,” Talal Abdullah Al-Zahrani, Yasser’s father, said. “The American administration is lying.”

Ahmad Al-Zahrani, Yasser’s brother, said it was unthinkable that Yasser would kill himself. “It’s impossible for him to commit suicide,” he told Al-Watan newspaper.

“He was killed,” said another brother, Abdullah.

Fares Al-Utaibi, Manie’s brother, also suspected foul play. “We are 100 percent suspicious about his death,” he told the newspaper.

The US said the two Saudis and the Yemeni hanged themselves with clothes and bed sheets. They were the first prisoners the US military has reported as dying at the US base since 2002.

The deaths renewed criticism of the base, which many human rights groups say should be closed. Nearly all the prisoners at Guantanamo are being held without charge and some have been held for more than four years.

The military camp holds 460 foreigners captured mainly in Afghanistan during the US-led war to oust the Taleban government in Kabul.

There have been many previous suicide attempts at Guantanamo. Before Saturday, 23 prisoners had tried to kill themselves in 41 suicide attempts at the camp.

Kateb Al-Shammari, a lawyer for Saudi detainees at Guantanamo, said he held the US authorities responsible for the deaths. “We lost confidence in US jails ... after Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo,” he told local newspapers.

The Saudi authorities have pledged more efforts to bring back all Saudis detained at Guantanamo. The Kingdom has freed at least eight detainees handed over to it from Guantanamo after they completed their jail sentences. In May, the Kingdom said it had received 15 Saudi detainees and might put them on trial.