Guantanamo inmate 'slashes wrists'

The lawyer for a Yemeni man being held at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, says his client slashed his wrist in an apparent suicide attempt during a meeting with him at the prison. David Remes said on Monday that Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif reportedly used a piece of a table to cut a vein in his wrist without him or the guards seeing, then hurled the blood. "As he sawed [his wrist], he drained his blood into a plastic container and, shortly before it was time for me to leave, he hurled the blood at me from the container," Remes told Gulf News newspaper on Monday. Shortly after throwing the blood, guards rushed in and subdued and treated the prisoner, he told the Associated Press news agency. Latif earlier alleged in a letter to his lawyer, obtained by Al Jazeera, that abuse has continued at the facility since Barack Obama, the US president, came to power. Four prisoners have killed themselves at the Guantanamo prison camp and lawyers claim there have been several additional attempts. Remes is quoted by Gulf News as saying that Latif, who has been held in Guantanamo without charge for seven years, is "a very sick man, physically and psychologically" and needs to be returned to his family in Yemen. Latif is apparently now recovering from his self-inflicted injuries but details of his condition are not known and officials at Guantanamo have made no comment, the Associated Press reports quoting Remes. Latif, who is about 33 years of age, was captured by Pakistani forces after leaving Afghanistan and handed over to US authorities. Military authorities say he is a suspected member of al-Qaeda who fought alongside the Taliban, but he says he is a victim of mistaken identity and only went to Afghanistan for medical treatment. Latif alleged in a letter to Remes last month that since Obama took office, "oppression has increased, torture has increased and insults have increased". That letter emerged two days after another inmate, Mohammad al-Qurani, told Al Jazeera in an exclusive phone call that he had been mistreated even after Obama's pledge to end abuse at Guantanamo.