Ali Abdullah Ahmed Ali Abdullah Ahmed , also known as Salah Ahmed al - Salami ( Arabic : علي عبدالله احمد ) ( January 12 , 1970 – June 10 , 2006 ) , was a citizen of Yemen who died while being held as an enemy combatant in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camp s , in Cuba . His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 693 . Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter - terror analysts estimated he was born in 1977 , in Ib , Yemen . Ali Abdullah Ahmed died in custody on June 10 , 2006 . His death was announced by the Department of Defense as a suicide , on the same day that the deaths of two other detainees were said to be suicides . Their deaths received wide coverage in the media . His younger brother , Muhammaed Yasir Ahmed Taher , is also held in Guantanamo . They had been held since 2002 . Early life and background . Ali Abdullah Ahmed was born in Yemen in 1970 and raised in a Muslim family . Hunger strike and forced feeding . At its height more than 100 detainees participated in this hunger strike in 2005 . The Department of Defense ' s position was that detainees did not have the right to refuse medical treatment and had the guards force feed them . Approximately three dozen detainees were participating in the hunger strike in January 2006 , when the DOD instituted a new measure — the use of " restraint chair s " . Detainees were strapped immobile in the restraint chairs during the force - feeding , and for a period of time afterward . DOD said this was done to ensure that the detainees could not induce vomiting and void the force - fed formula before digestion began . Detainees claimed that the force - feeding caused extremely painful cramps , and that they restrained for hours , even if they soiled themselves . DOD said their policy authorized restraining the detainees immobile for only 45 minutes following the end of the force - feeding . All but four of the hunger strikers ended their hunger strike a few days after the initiation of the use of the restraint chair in January 2006 . The " Washington Post " reported that Ahmed continued his hunger strike from late 2005 to May 2006 . Death in custody . On June 10 , 2006 DOD reported that three Guantanamo detainees : two Saudis and one Yemeni , had committed suicide . DOD spokesmen refrained from releasing the names of the dead men . The next day , June 11 , 2006 , Saudi Arabian authorities released the names of the two Saudi men . Later that day the DOD released the names of all three men . The dead Yemeni man was identified by DOD for the first time as Ali Abdullah Ahmed . The dead Saudis were identified as Yasser Talal Al Zahrani and Mani Shaman Turki al - Habardi Al - Utaybi . Official account . At the time , the " Washington Post " reported that DOD alleged Ahmed : " was a mid - to high - level al - Qaida operative who had key ties to principal facilitators and senior members of the group . ' " — and that " Throughout his time in Guantanamo , he had been non - compliant and hostile to the guard force " . In 2008 , however , the " Washington Post " received thousands of pages of documents related to a longstanding FOIA request , and related to the NCIS report published in August . The journalist Josh White found the following about Ahmed in a " previously secret " document : In 2006 , the Post said that Ahmed was a " long - term hunger strike r . " There were several widespread hunger strikes during 2005 . A widespread hunger strike that began in late May 2005 or early June 2005 came to a negotiated end on July 28 , 2005 . Detainees report the camp authorities had agreed to several key concessions but did not carry them out . The detainees resumed the hunger strike on August 8 , 2005 . Initially the DOD reported that none of the three dead men had legal representation . On June 14 , 2006 DOD acknowledged that Ahmed had legal representation . But they had not yet given his lawyers the security clearance required to visit with him . Ali Abdullah Ahmed and Yasser Talal Al Zahrani had previously been listed on DOD ' s two official lists of detainees . The other Saudi was previously recorded as either " Maniy bin Shaman al - Otaibi " or " Mani bin Shaman bin Turki al Habradi " , and had not appeared on either official list . Murder suggestions . On June 14 , 2006 , Ali Abdullah Ahmed ' s father claimed that , as a Muslim , his son would not have committed suicide . The father alleged that his son was " assassinated by American soldiers " . Post - mortems . All three of the families of the dead men challenged the American post - mortems . The families all took steps to have second post - mortems done after the bodies were returned to them . Some family members had expressed concerns when the bodies were missing the brain , liver , kidney , heart and other organs . Patrice Mangin , the Swiss pathologist who headed the team that volunteered to examine Al Salami ' s body , said that it was routine to remove some organs that decay rapidly . But , Mangin said that the US authorities had kept the organs of Al - Salami ' s throat , which was unusual , and his team could not determine fully whether he had hanged himself without being able to examine those . In an interview in March 2007 , Mangin said that the US officials had taken very good care in preservation when shipping the body to Yemen . Since his examination , he had requested the organs in writing from the United States ; missing were some of the organs in the pharynx , larynx and the throat , such as the hyoid bone . He also asked questions about the body when found , but never received a response of any kind . He noted that the Saudi doctor who carried out the examination of the bodies of the two Saudi men also reported that the organs of the throats were missing . Habeas corpus . In 2005 attorneys had initiated a habeas corpus petition on behalf of Ali Abdullah Ahmed to challenge the government for the cause of his detention . Following the United States Supreme Court ' s finding in " Boumediene v . Bush " ( 2008 ) , ruling that detainees and foreign nationals had the right of " habeas corpus " to sue in federal court , Ahmed ' s former attorneys re - initiated his " habeas " petition . They argued that the Department of Defense had withheld important information about Ahmed to substantiate its claim that he committed suicide . They also filed a " habeas corpus " petition on behalf of Mohammed Ahmed Taher , on July 18 , 2008 , who they reported is the younger brother of the Yemeni captive identified by DOD as Salah al - Salami , or as Ali Abdullah Ahmed . The petition identifies Salah al - Salami as the Yemeni who died in custody on June 10 , 2006 . The petition for Mohammed Ahmed Taher reports that his mental stability has been seriously affected by his brother ' s death . NCIS Report . On August 23 , 2008 Josh White , writing in the " Washington Post , " reported the paper had received 3 , 000 pages of documents related to the NCIS investigation through Freedom of Information Act requests . He reported that the NCIS report attributed the deaths of the three men to lapses on the part of the guards , and to a policy of leniency for the compliant captives . The report said the deaths were in Camp 1 , a camp for compliant captives , which has now been closed . The men ' s bodies were masked from view by the guards because of laundry they were allowed to hang up to dry . The NCIS report identified the dead Yemeni as " Ali Abdullah Ahmed Naser al - Sullami " . It quoted from what it claimed was Ahmed ' s suicide note : The Post quoted the reaction of David Englehart , al - Salami ' s attorney , to the documents ' release : Outstanding habeas petitions . Attorneys had also filed " habeas corpus " petitions for Salah al - Salami and fellow Saudi Yassar Talal al - Zahrani prior to their deaths . In December 2009 , the Obama administration argued that the petitions of the late detainees should be quashed , because their CSRT s had determined that they were " enemy combatants " . Talal al - Zahrani ' s father countered : " It doesn ' t really matter if this was an intentional death or an accidental death or suicide . The point is that the U . S . government bears responsibility . " Disputes over cause of death . Some former prisoners , including Murat Kurnaz , have said they believed that the three men were killed by guards at Guantanamo . His memoir , published in 2008 , discussed the deaths of the men . In December 2009 , Seton Hall University School of Law published " Death in Camp Delta " , a report prepared under the supervision of its director of the Center for Policy and Research , Professor Mark Denbeaux , criticizing numerous inconsistencies in DOD ' s official accounts of these deaths . It is available online at " Death in Camp Delta " . On 18 January 2010 , Scott Horton of " Harper ’ s Magazine " published an article denouncing the deaths of Al - Salami , Al - Utaybi and Al - Zahrani as accidental manslaughter during a torture session at a black site , and the official account as a cover - up .