Former Guantánamo Detainee Tariq El Sawah Dies at 68 After 14 Years in U.S. Custody
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 18
Former Guantánamo Detainee Tariq El Sawah Dies at 68 After 14 Years in U.S. Custody
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 18
Summary
Tariq El Sawah died on March 31 at age 68 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the United States resettled him in 2016 after nearly 14 years at Guantánamo Bay.
About two months of hospitalization in Zenica preceded his death, and his brother said he never recovered from illnesses documented during U.S. detention, including diabetes, coronary artery disease and an eating disorder.
U.S.-allied forces captured the Egyptian national in Afghanistan in late 2001; despite periodic efforts to charge him as a Qaeda explosives trainee, he was never tried in court or before a military commission.
His case had drawn scrutiny as his health deteriorated, and his final decade in Bosnia was marked by poverty, unemployment and persistent physical and mental health problems, according to relatives and a physician who evaluated him.