KHARTOUM, Sudan -- Relatives of a Sudanese man accused by the U.S. military of being an al-Qaida accountant and bodyguard to Osama bin Laden said they had not heard from the suspect since 1996 and were shocked to learn he was detained at Guantanamo Bay, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The younger brother of Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi told the independent Al-Sahafa daily newspaper that al Qosi's family learned he would face a U.S. military tribunal through a report on the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera.
The only one who recognized al Qosi on television was his father, who said he would know him "even if his eyes were closed," the paper reported.
"When his father heard about his news on TV, he hugged the TV and cried. We all cried," the suspect's younger brother, Abdallah, was quoted as saying.
Arrest Shocks Guantanamo Prisoner's Family
By Associated Press
February 25, 2004, 10:27 AM EST
KHARTOUM, Sudan -- Relatives of a Sudanese man accused by the U.S. military of being an al-Qaida accountant and bodyguard to Osama bin Laden said they had not heard from the suspect since 1996 and were shocked to learn he was detained at Guantanamo Bay, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The younger brother of Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi told the independent Al-Sahafa daily newspaper that al Qosi's family learned he would face a U.S. military tribunal through a report on the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera.
The only one who recognized al Qosi on television was his father, who said he would know him "even if his eyes were closed," the paper reported.
"When his father heard about his news on TV, he hugged the TV and cried. We all cried," the suspect's younger brother, Abdallah, was quoted as saying.
On Wednesday, family and friends refused to talk to reporters, fearing their comments could harm al Qosi before the tribunal.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon charged al Qosi and Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul, of Yemen -- who are among more than 600 terror suspects held at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- with war crimes conspiracy.
The Pentagon said al Bahlul was a propagandist for bin Laden.
The men allegedly trained at al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, but the Pentagon's list of charges does not mention either man carrying out or planning any terrorist attack.
The two suspects will face the first U.S. military tribunal since World War II and could face maximum sentences of life in prison if convicted.
Al Qosi, born in 1960 in Atbara, 215 miles north of Khartoum, was "calm and aloof," his family told Al-Sahafa.
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