By Ben Fox
The Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A Guantanamo Bay prisoner who died in an apparent suicide had twice before tried to kill himself at the U.S. base in Cuba and had a long-term mental illness that predated his time in custody, his attorney said Thursday.
One previous suicide attempt was so serious the prisoner nearly died, but was saved by military doctors, attorney Paul Rashkind told The Associated Press.
“This was a young man who suffered significant psychosis, a paralyzing psychosis beginning many years ago, long before he got to Gitmo,” Rashkind said in a phone interview from St. Louis.
The U.S. military said the 37-year-old Afghan prisoner identified as Inayatullah was found unconscious and not breathing on Wednesday.
The prisoner had apparently hanged himself with what appeared to be bed linen in an exercise yard of the detention center, a Guantanamo spokeswoman, Navy Cmdr. Tamsen A. Reese, told the AP.
Reese declined to discuss details about the detainee’s death or medical history pending an investigation into the case by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
She said he did not have a history of disciplinary problems: “He was generally a compliant detainee.”
Inayatullah had been held without charge at Guantanamo since September 2007. The military said he admitted planning al Qaida terrorist operations, and acknowledged facilitating the movement of foreign fighters.
The prisoner’s real name was apparently Hajji Nassim and his lawyer said there was no evidence to support the allegations against him.
“I will tell you as far as I’m concerned he never did a violent act, he never planned a violent act,” Rashkind said. “He was not a terrorist. His mental health issues made it difficult to address why he was there.”
Rashkind, who was still trying to contact family members in Iran and Pakistan to notify them of the death, said he was unable to discuss details of the case because some evidence is classified and because of U.S. government secrecy rules. He visited the detainee every three months and last spoke to him two weeks ago in a monitored phone call to discuss the status of a petition seeking his release.
“I can tell you he was fine at that time,” the attorney said. “In his conversations he seemed like he was doing well and he was looking forward to our visit that was coming up.”
The military said the prisoner’s remains would be treated with respect for Islamic culture and traditions with the assistance of a cultural adviser and that the body would be repatriated after the autopsy.
He was the eighth prisoner to die at the detention center since January 2002, when the U.S. began using the U.S. Navy base to hold captured detainees. Five of the previous deaths were declared suicides. Two others were from apparently natural causes, including a 48-year-old Afghan who collapsed and died while exercising in February. Inayatullah is the eighth. The U.S. still holds about 170 men at Guantanamo.