Body of Yemeni Guantanamo detainee arrives home

The Body of Yemeni detainee in Guantanamo, Muhammed Ahmed Abdullah Saleh al-Hanashi arrived today at the Sana'a International Airport on aboard of a U.S. civilian accompanied by a political official of Yemen's embassy in Washington, Khalid al-Kathiri. 

The dead body of 31-year-old h al-Hanashi arrived will be handed over to his family and will be buried in al-Asrah area of al-Wadhee in Abyan province. 

The sources said that decision on postmortem anatomy is already decided on by the al-Hanashi's family. 

Al-Hanashi had been held at Guantanamo since February 2002, US Southern Command said in a statement.Al-Hanashi is the fifth prisoner to take his life at the detention center since the Pentagon began holding terrorism suspects there more than seven years ago. Al-Hanashi was a second Yemeni detainee passed away mysteriously at Guantanamo Bay. 

Al-Hanashi was found dead last Monday and has spurred fresh criticism of the US detention policy and increased demands that President Obama fulfill his vow to close Guantanamo by January.

In 2006, the US announced that two Saudis and a Yemeni identified as Salah Ali Abdullah Ahmed al-Salmi, had committed suicide at Guantanamo.

In 2007, it said a fourth prisoner killed himself in May and another detainee died of cancer in December.

A spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington said that Undersecretary of the US Defense Minister for Detainee Affairs Fillip Carter has met with the Yemeni Ambassador, Abdullah Abdul Wahab al-Hajri, and told him about the death of the detainee.

Mohammed Albasha, Spokesman of the Embassy of Yemen in Washington, said that his country was "saddened" to learn the news.

US reports said that it is clear that al-Hanashi committed suicide after he had been on a long hunger strike.  An investigation has been launched into the death and the embassy has assigned a diplomat to pay a visit to the US Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and follow up the American administration’s investigations regarding Al-Hanashi's death who also received the body of al-Hanashi to transport him home.

The US military claimed that intelligence reports indicated that al-Hanashi had fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan and that he had stayed at four guest houses associated with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. He was captured in Mazar-e-Sharif and later transferred to Guantanamo.

With almost 100 out of 240 remaining detainees at the prison Yemeni nationals, the US said earlier that the Yemeni detainees were posing a major obstacle to closing the detention facility.

Previously, Yemen has renewed claims to bring its nationals home and has pledged to prepare effective rehabilitation programs to ensure the returnees will never relapse to terrorism.

However, the US government has recently revealed a plan to send all or some of the Yemeni detainees to Saudi Arabia, praising the country's rehabilitation programs and centers as more effective and that they had talked to the Saudis about the transfer.

However, Yemen refused that their nationals be handed over to another country than Yemen. Ultimately, the fate of the remaining Yemeni prisoners is still yet to be decided.

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