Family Members Ask Court to Reconsider Dismissal of Wrongful Death Claims from Guantánamo

Family Members Ask Court to Reconsider Dismissal of Wrongful Death Claims from Guantánamo | Press Release

March 17, 2010, New York – Last night, the families of two men who died at Guantánamo in June 2006 asked the district court in Washington, D.C. to reconsider its February 16 ruling dismissing their case, which seeks to hold federal officials and the United States accountable for their sons’ torture, arbitrary detention, and ultimate deaths. The families’ request is based on newly discovered evidence from four soldiers, including a decorated Army officer, who describe a cover-up by the authorities and say they were ordered not to speak out. The soldiers’ accounts were reported in Harper’s Magazine in January. The families are represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR).

While the Pentagon has always maintained that the two men, along with a third prisoner, had committed suicide in their cells, the soldiers’ first-hand accounts raise serious questions about the actual cause and circumstances of the deaths. Their accounts strongly suggest that the men died as the result of torture at a “black site” at Guantánamo.

Said Talal Al-Zahrani, father of one of the men who died that night, “Mr. President, the killing of my son in the hands of his guards and under the supervision of the administration of the detention center is a serious and gruesome crime. It is against all human values and norms, and whoever covers up this gruesome crime or obstructs the criminal and judicial investigations is a co-conspirator with those who have committed the crime itself.” The full text of Mr. Al-Zahrani’s statement to President Obama, the courts, and the American People is on the CCR website. Read more.