Advertising

The Seattle Times Company

NWjobs | NWautos | NWhomes | NWsource | Free Classifieds | seattletimes.com

The Seattle Times

Nation & World


Our network sites seattletimes.com | Advanced

Originally published December 5, 2007 at 12:00 AM | Page modified December 5, 2007 at 10:28 AM

E-mail article     Print view

Guantánamo suicide attempt reported

A detainee slashed his throat with a sharpened fingernail in a shower recently and could have bled to death if guards hadn't rushed to his aid, officers disclosed Tuesday.

Los Angeles Times

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — Despite sweeping measures to prevent suicides among the 305 prisoners here, a detainee slashed his throat with a sharpened fingernail in a shower recently and could have bled to death if guards hadn't rushed to his aid, officers disclosed Tuesday.

The November incident at the top-security Camp 6 prison was one of dozens known to have taken place since prisoners were first brought here in early 2002.

Zachary Katznelson, of the rights group Reprieve, said he was one of two lawyers representing the prisoner and identified him as an Algerian who has been held at Guantánamo without charges for nearly six years. The detainee was to meet with one of his lawyers for the first time this week. Katznelson said he could not release the man's name without his consent.

The prisoner was given two stitches in his neck at the detention hospital, then confined to the psychological ward for a week after the incident, a medical officer said.

Since three suicides in June last year and one in May, all by hanging, bed linens have been collected each morning to deprive the detainees of any means of making ligatures. Anyone suspected of trying to hurt himself is stripped of all bedding and outfitted in a green quilted "suicide smock" that attaches by Velcro and cannot be shredded.

But little can be done to stop those most determined to hurt themselves, conceded the senior medical officer.

Majid Khan, a former Baltimore resident and alleged affiliate of Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, used his teeth to sever a vein in his wrist shortly after his transfer last year to Guantánamo from a secret CIA prison abroad. He remains in detention.

Information from The Associated Press is inicluded in this report.

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

More Nation & World headlines...

E-mail article Print view      Share:    Digg     Newsvine

advertising

Round 2: Snow slams Mid-Atlantic, points north

UPDATE - 06:41 AM
Afghans airlift bodies as avalanche deaths hit 166

UPDATE - 07:29 AM
Ex-Ill. gov. to answer revised corruption charges

NEW - 07:09 AM
Orphanage fire kills 11 in rural South Africa

UPDATE - 06:41 AM
Pakistani officials confirm Taliban chief is dead

Advertising

Video

Marketplace

Open Houses

Find this weekend's open house listings.
Or search by location:

nwautos

Fatal crashes are down in Washington, and a national used-car database goes onlinenew
Associated Press Study: Fatal crashes down in Washington Last year Washington's roads were the scene of the fewest fatal crashes since 1955. According...
Post a comment

 
Most read
Most commented
Most e-mailed
 
 

Most viewed imagesMore

Advertising