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Two Kuwaitis to Leave Guantanamo Soon: Group

Reuters
September 10, 2006

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Two Kuwaiti men held at a U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay will be released after more than four years in captivity and may return home by the end of next week, the head of a non-governmental lobby group said on Sunday.
 
Khaled al-Odah told Reuters that Washington had informed Kuwaiti officials of the imminent release of the two prisoners, identified as Omar Rajab Amin and Abdullah Kamel al-Kandari.
 
The cabinet said after its weekly meeting that two Kuwaitis would be released from Guantanamo following mediation by the Gulf Arab country's emir, who visited Washington earlier this month.
 
It did not name the two but said all Kuwaiti prisoners stand a fair trial under Kuwaiti law after returning from Guantanamo.
 
Amin and Kandari will be interrogated by state security once they arrive, Odah said. Amin is a 39-year-old father of five and Kandari is 33 and has four children.
 
"There are preparations to send an aircraft to Cuba to bring them. If we are lucky we will get them by the end of next week," Odah told Reuters.
 
The men's expected release will bring the number of Kuwaiti detainees at Guantanamo to four, including Odah's son Fawzi.
 
A total of 12 Kuwaitis were among some 500 men held at the U.S. Naval facility since the 2001 U.S.-led war that ousted Afghanistan's Taliban rulers following the September 11 attacks on the United States.
 
Odah said Kuwait and the United States were discussing the fate of the other Kuwaiti detainees. Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah met President Bush at the White House Sept 6.
 
"The negotiations are going on and they are trying to expedite it as much as they could and there is no expectation yet," Odah said. "We are waiting for the Emir and the foreign minister to come back so we could discuss this with them."
 
In May, a Kuwaiti court cleared five Kuwaitis of charges of belonging to al Qaeda and ordered the former Guantanamo inmates freed immediately, but the prosecution plans to appeal.
 
Kuwait, a staunch U.S. ally, is a main transit route for American forces going to Iraq. It was the launch pad for the 2003 war on Iraq and up to 25,000 troops are based there.

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