After being held for nine years at Guantánamo prison without
charge or trial, Afghan prisoner Awal Gul died from a heart attack Feb. 2. He
leaves behind 18 children, who have not seen him since he turned himself in
with hopes of clearing his name of being involved with the Taliban.
Although Gul was one of 48 prisoners designated to be held
indefinitely without charge or trial, it has never been proven that he was a
prominent member of the Taliban.
Gul is the seventh prisoner to die at Guantanamo prison. Five of these deaths are alleged by U.S. authorities to
have been suicides. In addition, one man died of cancer in Dec. 2009.
It is an outrage that even one
prisoner has died at Guantanamo, let alone seven. His lawyer said, “It is a
shame that the government will finally fly him home not in handcuffs and a
hood, but in a casket.”
