Awal Gul, Guantanamo detainee, dead at 48

A 48-year-old Afghan prisoner, Awal Gul, died at Guantanamo Bay after exercising on an elliptical machine, according to the U.S. military.

He is the seventh detainee to have died at Guantanamo since the American Navy base in Cuba became a detention center for suspected terrorist detainees in January 2002. Five other deaths were allegedly suicide, and one was from colon cancer, AP reports.

The inmate collapsed while working out and was taken to the base hospital, where he died. The military said his death resulted from natural causes, but it is still under investigation.

Gul was one of about 172 men still being held at Guantanamo despite promises by President Obama to shut down the detention center.

The U.S. military considered Gul "an admitted Taliban recruiter." The United States designated him one of the 48 "indefinite detainees," which meant he would not be repatriated or put on trial.

One of his lawyers said the government was holding him indefinitely because they had no evidence against him. He had been held at Guantanamo without charges for eight years, reports the BBC.

"Mr. Gul was never an enemy of the United States in any way," his lawyer, Matthew Dodge, told AP. "Mr. Gul was kind, philosophical, devout and hopeful to the end, in spite of all that our government has put him through."

He said Gul's children and grandchildren had been working for his release.

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