CAIRO (Al Arabiya)
A United States judge today ordered Wednesday the release of a Kuwaiti citizen from the Guantanamo Bay prison, where he has been held for nearly eight years without any charges being filed against him.
Khaled al-Mutairi, 34, will once again be free after a U.S. federal judge ruled that the government lacked sufficient evidence to continue his detention.
" We now want the U.S. Government to follow the court order and promptly return Khaled to Kuwait " David Cynamon, lead attorney “The Government is directed to take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps to facilitate the release of Petitioner Al Mutairi forthwith,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said. Al-Mutairi was taken into U.S. custody in Pakistan in 2001.
Mutairi was picked up after traveling to Afghanistan with a charitable organization to build mosques and provide funds for schools and orphanages.
David Cynamon, Mutairi’s lead attorney said justice was finally served for Mutairi and requested that the government releases the detainee immediately.
“We now want the U.S. Government to follow the court order and promptly return Khaled to Kuwait,” Cynamon said. “That is what the rule of law is all about.”
Since his imprisonment Khaled Al-Mutairi and his family have asked for a fair hearing before an independent, impartial court to test the evidence against him.
Federal judges have already reviewed some 30 cases and in the majority of them concluded that the government did not have sufficient evidence to establish guilt and continue detentions.
Three Kuwaitis remain in Guantanamo, where they, like Khaled al- Mutairi, have been imprisoned for nearly eight years. The court has scheduled habeas corpus hearings for Fawzi al-Odah and Fouad al-Rabiah to take place in August while Fayiz al-Kandari’s is in September.
"There were originally 12 Kuwaitis in Guantanamo Bay. In 2005 and 2006, the United States returned eight of them to Kuwait where that country's courts charged, tried and cleared them of wrongdoing," Cynamon said. |
