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SANA'A, Jan. 13 -- Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay Prison are continuing their 40 day hunger strike, although some are being forcefully fed by nasal tubes. The 25 prisoners participating in this strike - a full ten percent of the total detainees - did so to protest the release of Osama Bin Laden's driver Salim Hamdan who was handed over to the Yemeni government in November last year, said David Remes, a lawyer of 17 Yemeni prisoners at Guantanamo. They also protest the bad conditions of the prison which recently got worse despite a statement made by the American military that conditions had improved. "The men are frustrated - as they have been for years - that they remain in prison with no end in sight," stated Remes.
Many of the protestors were not charged at all and hence, according to The National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms (HOOD), are illegally detained.
Another thirty non-Yemeni detainees are currently also on a hunger strike, which according to the Pentagon is when a detainee refuses nine meals in a row. Detainees are force fed after fasting for 21 days or when they weigh less than 85 percent of their weight upon arrival at the prison. One of those is Adnan Laitif from Taiz, who is reported to have severe mental and physical problems. The military holds him in a ward for psychologically disturbed prisoners.
"He is force-fed twice a day and treated brutally by the guards. He weighs only about 100 pounds and his waist is only 26 inches," said Remes. "I am convinced that he will succeed in killing himself if he is not returned home soon." Remes implored President Ali Abdullah Saleh to arrange immediately for his release.
On many different occasions, the Yemeni government demanded the release of its citizens. However, the US government refused to hand them over, fearing they...