A detainee found dead in his cell at Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday was a Saudi army veteran who trained with U.S. forces before fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to military hearing records.Abdul Rahman Ma'ath Thafir al-Amri had been imprisoned at the military detention facility in Cuba since February 2002 without meeting with a lawyer or being charged with a crime, according to a legal defense group -- a circumstance that the group said could explain his apparent suicide.
U.S. officials said he was not on suicide watch at the time guards found him unresponsive Wednesday afternoon, but they have declined to provide details or evidence of his cause of death. Amri's body will be prepared for repatriation to Saudi Arabia after an autopsy, the officials said yesterday.
Saudi officials yesterday identified the detainee as Amri, 34, who told his U.S. captors that he was essentially a foot soldier in Afghanistan because he felt a duty to fight jihad. U.S. Southern Command officials characterized Amri as a mid-level al-Qaeda operative who ran safe houses and fought against the United States in November 2001.
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