JEDDAH, 18 June 2006 — A Saudi government spokesman said yesterday that authorities have received the bodies of Manie Shaman Al-Utaibi and Yasser Talal Al-Zahrani, two of the three Guantanamo prisoners who were found dead in their cells on June 10.
The bodies arrived in Riyadh in the early hours yesterday and have been transferred to a hospital in the capital. “Doctors there will examine them to ascertain the cause of death,” said Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki.
The families of the deceased have been informed. The men’s families have questioned the circumstances of their deaths.
“They called us early yesterday morning to informed us of the body’s arrival. Yesterday afternoon we were told to go to Riyadh to identify the body,” said Al-Utaibi’s uncle who did not want to provide his name.
The third body of Ali Abdullah Ahmed, a Yemeni national, has also been repatriated.
Al-Zahrani was one of the youngest persons sent to the US offshore detention facility at the age of 17.
US authorities says the men hanged themselves with clothes and bed-sheets, making them the first prisoners to die at the camp since it opened in 2002 at the US naval base in Cuba. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Colleen Graffy told the BBC after the deaths that the suicides were a “PR stunt” on the part of the deceased. US Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris called the alleged suicides “an act of asymmetrical warfare.”
A Pentagon statement issued yesterday aimed to quell Muslim concern over the handling of the bodies. A cultural adviser has assisted Joint Task Force Guantanamo to ensure that the remains are handled in a culturally and religiously appropriate manner,” the statement said. The Pentagon statement added that US personnel “worked diligently to preserve the dignity of the remains and to ensure application of the rituals of the Islamic faith.”
The Pentagon said that a navy officer, a Muslim, supervised all aspects of preparing the remains for transport, including the washing and shrouding the bodies and a prayer service to prepare for flying them home on a commercially contracted plane.
The deaths have rekindled the debate over the legitimacy of the US using an offshore prison to skirt its own civil laws regarding the treatment of prisoners.
The United States currently holds about 460 detainees at the Guantanamo prison, most of them without charges. Ten have been charged with crimes.
Washington says the prison is needed to prevent dangerous Al-Qaeda and Taleban figures from returning to the battlefield and to extract information that may help prevent future attacks.
