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Caribbean-Latin America
Ex-Gitmo Syrian hard boy goes on hunger strike in Venezuela
2016-08-28
A former Guantanamo prisoner now held by Venezuela’s intelligence agency has gone on hunger strike, his lawyer said Saturday.
That's easier to do in Venezuela these days...
Jihad Diyab, who was relocated from Guantanamo to Uruguay nearly two years ago, was detained after traveling to Caracas in July in an apparent attempt to see family, his California-based lawyer Jon Eisenberg told AFP.
A Syrian bad boy stuck in Venezuela has a California lawyer?
In an email, Eisenberg said he was concerned about Diyab, a 45-year-old Syrian national, after failing to establish contact with him.

"We still have not had any communication with the Venezuelan authorities," Eisenberg said. "I feared from the beginning that (the hunger strike) could take place, so I’m not surprised."
From the 2015 photo, he looks like he could lose a stone or so...
Held in Guantanamo for 12 years without charge, Diyab was released from the US military prison in southern Cuba to Uruguay in 2014 along with five fellow former detainees.
So what's he doing in Venezuela?
On August 6, Diyab’s lawyer had asked the Venezuelan government for permission to speak with his client by telephone to organize his defense.

A US-based human rights activist confirmed Diyab’s hunger strike.

Three independent sources, who asked to remain anonymous so they could speak freely about the case, said the Syrian man began his protest after "learning that the foreign ministries of Venezuela and Uruguay negotiated his deportation to Uruguay," Andres Conteris said by telephone.

Diyab is also refusing to take liquids, according to Conteris, of the group Witness Against Torture. He hopes to be sent to Turkey or another third country to reunite with his family.
His family, handlers, superiors, arms men and teammates being "refugees" there...
The Venezuelan authorities have not yet commented on the case.

Conteris traveled to Venezuela earlier this month to set up a meeting, but returned to the United States without success.

Eisenberg represents Diyab in a lawsuit filed against the US authorities for force-feeding prisoners on hunger strike in Guantanamo.
Don't worry, I don't think the Venezuelans are big on that so you'll be spared...
Diyab was captured in 2002 near the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Posted by:Steve White

#9  That would be a smoothie movie.
Posted by: gorb   2016-08-28 22:03  

#8  How about an Ex Lax smoothie?
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2016-08-28 17:19  

#7  I like a Brunswick smoothie.
Posted by: Shipman   2016-08-28 10:00  

#6  "Smoothies are OK, though!"
Posted by: Frank G   2016-08-28 09:25  

#5  Hunger strike in Venezuela? How novel.
Posted by: Pappy   2016-08-28 08:59  

#4  "Whatever. What's one more mouth to not feed?"
Posted by: Frank G   2016-08-28 07:47  

#3  A positive hungry strike experience eventually leads to another.
Posted by: Airandee   2016-08-28 06:41  

#2  Never understood the hunger strike thing. Why would anyone give a poot?
Posted by: SteveS   2016-08-28 02:14  

#1  Held in Guantanamo for 12 years without charge...

Except for his aid and comfort to war criminals in the commission of crimes against humanity.

Diyab was captured in 2002 near the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Odd place to find an "innocent" Syrian. I'm sure he knew it was a war zone.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2016-08-28 00:13  

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