A lawyer for Saudi nationals imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay said on Sunday he held US authorities responsible for the deaths of two Saudi prisoners who hanged themselves at the US naval base. Saudi Arabia, a staunch US ally, said it was stepping up efforts to repatriate all nationals held at the base in Cuba.
An Interior Ministry statement identified the two Saudis as Manei al-Otaibi and Yasser al-Zahrani but gave no further details. A Yemeni man also committed suicide.
"The detainees' death reveals the mistreatment at Guantanamo and the extent human rights are breached," said Katib al-Shimary, lawyer for Saudi detainees at Guantanamo.
"I hold the US authorities responsible for their deaths," Shimary told Saudi-owned satellite television Al Arabiya.
A Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman told Reuters efforts were being made to bring the bodies of the two home, but declined to say if Riyadh would ask for a probe.
The three, who hanged themselves with clothes and bedsheets, were the first prisoners to die at the base in Cuba where the United States has held terrorism suspects since 2002.
The spokesman also said efforts would be stepped up to bring back all Saudis detained at Guantanamo.
"Each Saudi has to be brought home where he can face up to charges he is accused of based on our laws and regulations."
He said there were 103 Saudis detained at the naval base, which holds about 460 foreigners captured mainly in Afghanistan where the United States has fought the Taleban and al Qaeda.
A Yemeni rights group called for an impartial probe.
"(We) reiterate the need for an international investigation into this incident as US claims cannot be accepted without an independent and unbiased probe," the National Organisation for Defending Rights and Freedoms said on its Web site.
The deaths of the three renewed criticism of the base, which many human rights groups say should be closed. Nearly all the prisoners at Guantanamo are being held without charge and some have been held for more than three years.
The US military said guards found the three men in their cells after midnight and attempts to resuscitate them failed.
Saudi Arabia has freed at least eight detainees handed over to it from Guantanamo after they completed their jail sentences. In May, the kingdom said it had received 15 Saudi detainees and that they could be put on trial.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks on US cities were from Saudi Arabia, as is al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
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