Ahmed, Ruhal - short clip - WitnessingAttemptedSuicide

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-	There was one guy who was extremely	0:00
	repressed, you could say.	0:03
	He was a Saudi national.	0:05
	He was right in front of me and a very large guy.	0:06
	And he's always on antidepressants that promote - that is,	0:10
	He was not there I think. Mentally.	0:13
	Unless he was just acting. Um.	0:15
	And just one day he was praying.	0:18
	And he was like, (chuckles) "nobody's praying."	0:20
	And I was, I was washing up with everyone just	0:22
	started praying. I was behind.	0:24
	And I looked over and all I could see	0:26
	him do something with his bed sheet	0:28
	and I looked over carefully	0:30
	and I thought "What's he doing?	0:31
	And I thought, it kind of like got me.	0:33
	You know. I thought "what is he doing?"	0:34
	And I was watching and watching and watching and	0:36
	Eventually he starts ripping the sheet.	0:37
	Cause obviously the sheet, it's not like too thick	0:39
	to put through the mesh.	0:41
	So he rips it, he ties a knot, feeds it through and	0:43
	he can, he like going for the (surprised noise) tying it.	0:45
	And then he ties it around his neck	0:48
	he gets onto what- the sink - and he jumps off	0:49
	and he's hanging and he's making a noise "ahhh"	0:52
	he can't breathe. And me and Shafiq, and Assif	0:56
	was in one low, in one row, it was like the next area.	0:59
	And they also wasn't praying (laughs)	1:02
	We was about to pray. We was all washing up, and um	1:04
	Assif shouted "MP, someone's trying to hang himself."	1:07
	MP - we call the soldiers MP - and uh	1:09
	they, they came rushing down.	1:13
	Actually ran past his cell, (laughs)	1:15
	They ran passed the cell,	1:16
	made it to the end of- 'cause, 'cause	1:18
	it's hard to see through the mesh	1:20
	because of so many mesh, you know, it's hard to see.	1:22
	And of course it's night, which makes it, you know,	1:24
	quite hard to see. More.	1:27
	Then he comes back, it was all "over here, over here"	1:29
	And he came back, he opened the door	1:31
	and the guy was like an obese, basically.	1:32
	The guy who was hanging. So he was very, very fat.	1:34
	Um and uh I think there's about three	1:36
	of them and they're struggling to lift him off.	1:39
	So he was hanging for a long time because of his weight,	1:41
	and they couldn't like flip him and	1:44
	lift him and get the um sheet off.	1:46
	It took him about like 10 minutes and he was	1:49
	like nearly, nearly out.	1:52
	So that was one incident.	1:53
	And there's another incident that happened	1:54
	with a normal guy.	1:55
	He tried to kill himself.	1:56
	There's one guy, in isolation - who succeeded.	1:58
	Apparently. But from what we know, his name was Michelle.	2:00
	He was also in um the first prison that I was in.	2:04
	I was arrested by the Northern Lights.	2:07
	So I know him quite well.	2:09
	He was in isolation	2:12
	and apparently he tried to hang himself and he actually um	2:13
	he never died, but his brain was starved of oxygen.	2:16
	So that it's made him a cabbage basically.	2:20
	So he's, he's paralyzed from	2:22
-	Did you see him after?	2:24
	= Yeah. I've seen him after.	2:25
-	How did you see him afterward?	2:26
-	I went to the dentist to get my teeth done,	2:28
	had a root filling in my tooth. I'd paid.	2:30
	And he was actually, um, always	2:33
	he was not - after what happened to him, he was not actually	2:36
	brought back to the camp. He was always actually	2:39
	handcuffed to the bed even though he was a cabbage.	2:41

Item Info

Title:

Ahmed, Ruhal - short clip - WitnessingAttemptedSuicide

Date:

August 16, 2009

Interviewer:

Honigsberg, Peter Jan

Interviewee:

Ahmed, Ruhal

Role:

Detainee

Description:

This interview may include descriptions of violence.
Detainee Number US9UK-000110DP
Ruhal Ahmed, male, age 28, British, was detained in Guantanamo from February 11, 2002 until March 9, 2004, when he was returned to Britain, and released without charge.
Description was provided by Witness to Guantanamo.

Subject:

United Kingdom

Format:

oral histories

Language:

English

Extent:

2:27:29

Digital Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo

Source Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo Video Collection, 2009-2017

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Rights Note:

Unless otherwise noted, copyright is held by Peter Hongisberg. Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license, you are free to use and share these materials subject to the following conditions: You must attribute Peter Hongisberg as the rights holder. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. You may not distribute any modifications to the materials. For other uses, including commercial uses, please contact Rubenstein Library at http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/ask.

Identifier:

e123143e547479c346ce735642ce536a
witnesstoguantanamo
ark:/87924/r45142f42
68b2ba17-3004-4550-b8f0-6b939ad67925

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r45142f42

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Ahmed, Ruhal - short clip - WitnessingAttemptedSuicide

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