How Many People Have Died In Custody At Guantanamo Bay?

How Many People Have Died In Custody At Guantanamo Bay?

Between 2002 and 2021, nine people have died while being detained at Guantánamo Bay detention camp. Out of those nine, Abdul Razzaq Hekmati and Awal Gul reportedly died of natural causes, per Afghanistan Analysts Network. Seven others, Yasser Talal Al Zahrani, Mani Shaman Al-Utaybi, Salah Ahmed Al-Salami (also known as Ali Abdullah Ahmed), Abdul Rahman Ma'ath Thafir Al Amri, Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al Hanashi, Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif (also known as Allal Ab Aljallil Abd al Rahman), and Hajji Nassim (also known as Inayatullah), all reportedly died by suicide.

What all of the people who died at Guantánamo Bay have in common is the fact that they were all being held at the detention camp with neither charge nor conviction, and many of them were being held indefinitely.


Although the United States government justifies holding people indefinitely, asserting its right under international law, many of those held at Guantánamo Bay haven't been charged with a crime because there's no evidence against them, or if there was, "it was tainted beyond use when the detainees were subjected to what the CIA euphemistically called 'enhanced interrogation,'" Associated Press reports. Holding people without a charge is also a method of keeping people from testifying at trial about the torture they've experienced at the hands of the United States government, per NPR.