Dead Guantanamo detainee identified as Yemen national

Adnan Latif, 32, had been detained at the facility since January 2002. Cause of death was not revealed.

WASHINGTION: The US military has identified the detainee who died at Guantanamo Bay on Saturday: Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, aged 32, from Yemen.

Captain Robert Durand, a spokesperson for the Joint Task Force-Guantanamo, in a statement said that Latif had been detained at Guantanamo since January 2002, and was being detained "consistent with the law of far." The autopsy results, said the spokesperson, were not yet available for release. "Following the autopsy, a Muslim military chaplain, the Joint Task Force Guantanamo Cultural Advisor, and Islamic volunteers from the staff were on hand to ensure the appropriate handling of the body," said Captain Durand.

Adnan Latif is the ninth prisoner to die at Guantanamo Bay since the detention facility opened in 2001. He was reportedly arrested in Pakistan before he was handed over to US authorities and subsequently transferred to Guantanamo Bay.

The US military had announced on Monday that a detainee was “found unconscious” on Saturday – but said it was withholding the name and nationality till the deceased detainee’s family and government was notified of the death.

The official account of the death said that the detainee was found unconscious during a routine check by Joint Task Force guards. Immediately afterwards, corpsmen performed first aid and shifted the detainee to Naval Hospital Guantanamo where the doctors pronounced the detainee dead following a detailed medical examination.

He added that the reason the detainee had been in “disciplinary status following a “splashing incident”.

“He had recently assaulted a guard with a “cocktail” – usually a food tray containing feces, urine and other bodily fluids.”