In 2006, while in detention, he wrote a letter to his father, Colonel Talal al-Zahrani, a former Brigadier General in the Saudi police force,[3] that suggested that two prisoners seemed to be on the verge of death, and that he suspected foul play. Ten days later, the Department of Defense announced that he and the two prisoners had committed suicide.[4] The press, the Saudi government, the detainees' families, and human rights groups have raised serious questions about whether these deaths were suicides or manslaughter due to torture.