Swiss pathologists say suicide likely cause of death in Guantanamo case News
Swiss pathologists say suicide likely cause of death in Guantanamo case

[JURIST] A team of Swiss forensic pathologists from Institute of Legal Medicine at Lausanne University [institute website, in French] Friday announced the results of an autopsy on deceased Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Ahmed Ali Abdullah [Wikipedia profile], concluding that while available evidence supported the US government claim that Abdullah committed suicide by hanging last June, it was impossible to be completely sure due to military authorities withholding information. Abdullah, a Yemeni national, was one of three detainees to commit suicide in a single night [JURIST report; JURIST news archive], the first to die that way at the US military facility.

Distrusting the military's findings, Abdullah's family had asked the institute through the Alkarama [advocacy website, in Arabic] human rights organization to perform a second autopsy. The autopsy team said they could not be absolutely certain the death was a suicide because key body parts, including the larynx and other elements of the upper airway were missing. The US military did not respond to requests for a copy of the original autopsy, or other anatomical samples. Swissinfo has more.

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