Talal Al-Zahrani (left) and his son Yasser Al-Zahrani (right), who died at Guantanamo in 2006

Yasser Al-Zahrani was twenty-one years-old when he died at Guantanamo Bay. The US military claims he, along with two other prisoners, committed suicide in their cells. However, a new document uncovered by journalist Scott Horton and published by Harper’s Magazine strongly suggests that they were killed at a CIA black site prison.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) investigated the deaths of Al-Zahrani, Ali Abdulla Ahmed, and Mana Shaman Allabard al Tabi. Theyconcluded that they had died on June 10, 2006, after taking their own lives by making a rope out of bed sheets and T-shirts and hanging themselves.

Both Ahmed and Allabard were allegedly declared to be dead immediately when their bodies were discovered. Al-Zahrani, on the other hand, was transported to the Naval Hospital at Guantanamo and then pronounced dead later.

Horton uncovered a document, Exhibit 25, which was missing from the NCIS report on the “suicides” released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. It features statements from Master-at-Arms Denny, a member of the escort team who helped transfer the three detainees to the hospital.

As Horton writes, “Some time after midnight on June 10, Denny and another member of the escort team were instructed to transport a detainee suffering ‘life threatening symptoms,’ from a cell block in Camp I to the camp’s clinic. When Denny’s team arrived at the entrance to Camp I, they were informed that the detainee had already been moved to the clinic, a highly unusual violation of standard operating procedure.”

“For this reason, I had a feeling something was wrong,” the master-at-arms declared.