Four Prisoners Test Positive as Covid-19 Re-emerges at Guantánamo Bay
The News
Four high-value prisoners at Guantánamo Bay have tested positive for the coronavirus, including one man who was moved to the base hospital for closer observation, according to people familiar with operations at the U.S. base in Cuba.
Members of the military medical staff detected the re-emergence of the virus on Tuesday night at the Camp 5 prison, which holds 14 men who were detained in C.I.A. prisons between 2002 and 2008.
By Friday, the “small number of detainees” who had tested positive were “experiencing minor symptoms and are improving,” said Lt. Col. Dustin W. Cammack, an Army spokesman.
Two of the prisoners who tested positive were identified by people with knowledge of the situation as defendants in death penalty cases: Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is accused of plotting the suicide bombing of the destroyer Cole in 2000, and Walid bin Attash, who is accused of conspiring in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The other two were Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, who has pleaded guilty to commanding insurgent forces in wartime Afghanistan, and Guled Hassan Duran, a Somali prisoner who has been approved for release to a country other than his homeland, if one can be found.
None of the people who provided the figures and information about the outbreak agreed to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss detainee health care, and because of the classified nature of Camp 5.
On Friday, Dr. Andrew J. McDermott, the chief medical officer at the base hospital, confirmed “a slight increase” in Covid-19 cases at the base of about 6,000 residents. He described them as “overall low numbers” that did not merit more screening or masking.
Source: The New York Times
