MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) – A Syrian freed from Guantanamo nearly two years ago was in a coma early Thursday after a hunger strike to dramatize his unhappiness about being resettled in Uruguay and his demand to be moved to another country.
A doctor said paramedics found Abu Wa’el Dhiab unconscious when they arrived Wednesday at the apartment where the 45-year-old former prisoner has been staying in Montevideo.
“We hope that it is reversible,” said Dr. Julia Galzerano of the Medical Union of Uruguay.
She said Dhiab was extremely dehydrated and she was told he had gone 12 days without water. He remained at the apartment for treatment, in keeping with his wishes not to be hospitalized during his protest.
Dhiab drew international attention by hunger-striking during his 12 years of occasionally confrontational confinement at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Released in December 2014, he could not return to his war-torn homeland and was taken in as a refugee by Uruguay along with five other freed detainees.