MADINAH, 15 June 2006 — The father of one of the two Saudi detainees who, according to US authorities, apparently committed suicide last week in Guantanamo said he would seek help from US law to find out the real circumstances surrounding his son’s death.
Talal Abdullah Al-Zahrani, father of Yasser Al-Zahrani, told Arab News yesterday at his home in Madinah that the US explanation of his son’s death was a pack of lies. He added that many European organizations did not believe in the account and had called for the immediate closure of the camp.
Al-Zahrani added, “We will prosecute the US for not giving us a true report of the circumstances in which my son died. We will also demand that an independent agency or international committee excluding the US hold an inquiry to find out the real reason behind my son’s death.”
The bereaved father called on the authorities in the United States to return his son’s body and wondered how a youth, who had committed the entire Qur’an to memory, could commit suicide. “The fact that he was close to freedom after four years of hope combined with trust in the mercy of Almighty Allah would give any prisoner the strength to endure all the tortures and indignities of prison,” Al-Zahrani said.
The grief-stricken but indignant father asked, “How could anyone kill himself while cameras, watched by guards around the clock, monitored the cells? The guards are aware of every simple thing a prisoner does.”
Yasser was born in Yanbu in 1984 and grew up in Abha in the southern province of Asir. He completed his secondary education in Makkah and traveled to Dubai and then to Pakistan to study computer science and foreign languages. It was from Pakistan that he went to Afghanistan to participate in voluntary relief work when US forces caught him.
Al-Zahrani said, “We did not get any information about him for one year after that. Later we received four letters, which contained the sad story of the continuous torture and humiliation he had to undergo.”
