Guantanamo ex-inmate arrives in Kuwait

A Kuwaiti man held at Guantanamo Bay for nearly eight years arrived in his country early Friday after a U.S. judge cleared him of terror charges, Kuwait News Agency reported.

Khaled al-Mutairi, 34, was sent to the U.S. naval base in southern Cuba after being arrested in Pakistan in 2001. He was picked up after traveling to Afghanistan with a charitable organization to build mosques and provide funds for schools and orphanages.

"Khaled al-Mutairi has been released at 4:00 o'clock this afternoon," Kuwait Ambassador in Washington Sheikh Salem Abdullah al-Jaber al-Sabah told KUNA.

Mutairi "was transferred from Guantanamo to Kuwait in a private airplane and he is in good health condition and shall arrive (in Kuwait) tomorrow afternoon," Sheikh Salemsaid.

The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately confirm the prisoner's release.

With the release of Mutairi, three Kuwaiti nationals are still detained in the United States: Fuad al-Rebee'a, Fayez al-Kandari and Fawzi Aa-Odah.

The Kuwaiti government had recently completed a state-of-the-art rehabilitation center to provide detainees with access to education, medical care, group discussions and physical exercise to help them recover from their long ordeal in Guantanamo, KUNA reported.

Mutairi was transferred from Guantanamo to Kuwait in a private airplane and he is in good health condition and shall arrive tomorrow afternoon

Kuwait Ambassador in Washington Sheikh Salem Abdullah al-Jaber al-Sabah

Other detainees

In July, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered the government to release Mutairi. She also ordered the release of Rabiah last month, but she denied a petition for release from Odah.

Belgium's Dutch-language television channel VTM earlier said another Guantanamo detainee, whose identity was not revealed, arrived at a military base north of Brussels on Thursday.

The man would assume a new identity in Belgium and receive aid from a non-governmental organization, according to VTM. The U.S. and Belgian governments did not immediately confirm the report.

U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered Guantanamo shuttered by January 22, but White House officials have admitted they may not meet the deadline as they encounter diplomatic, legal and political setbacks to the plans.

Only a trickle of detainees has been transferred from the jail since Obama took office.

A Tanzanian prisoner, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, was sent to New York to be tried on charges of participating in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Another committed suicide.