Military rules Gitmo prisoner’s death a suicide

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A Yemeni who died in September at Guantanamo Bay committed suicide, and his remains will be repatriated, the US military said Saturday.

Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, 32, died at the base on September 8 “of a self-induced overdose of prescription medication,” US Southern Command said in a statement.

“The medical examiner concluded that the death was a suicide,” it added. “The medical examiner also concluded that acute pneumonia was a contributing factor in his death.”

SOUTHCOM said the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was conducting an independent investigation into Latif’s death, a standard practice for all detainees held at the US military prison in southern Cuba.

Latif was the ninth inmate to die at Guantanamo since January 2002, when the detention center was opened to hold “war on terror” suspects. The jail still holds 166 detainees.

Latif was taken to Guantanamo that very month after being captured near the Afghan-Pakistani border.

In June, the US Supreme Court refused to hear his case or that of six other Guantanamo inmates contesting their detention, even though a lower court judge had ruled that the evidence against him was too unreliable to justify holding him indefinitely.

At the time of his death, Latif had not been charged with a war crime or designated for prosecution, a military spokesman said.

He had been on disciplinary status for splashing a “cocktail of urine and other body fluids” at a guard at least once, according to prison officials.

[Image via Agence France-Presse]