JURIST - Paper Chase: Kuwait seeking release of Guantanamo detainees

[JURIST] A Kuwait delegate has started discussions with US officials for the release of two Kuwaiti Guantanamo Bay [JURIST backgrounder] detainees, the Kuwaiti Ambassador told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) [media website] on Friday. Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah stated [KUNA report] that further discussions will take place in the near future. He is acting on behalf of Kuwaiti emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah [official website] who ordered the two detainees to be transferred to the country as soon as possible. Kuwait has received 10 prisoners from the US detention facility. In March five Taliban detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility agreed [Al Jazeera report] to be transferred to Qatar, which is expected to assist the peace negotiations between the US and the Islamist state. US officials did not announce any decision at that time.

Several Kuwaiti prisoners have been continuously transferred to their home country from the US detention facility. In December 2009, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] announced [JURIST report] that detainee Fouad Al Rabiah has been transferred to Kuwaiti government. Al Rabiah, a Kuwaiti national, had been held at Guantanamo Bay for nearly eight years under suspicion of aiding al Qaeda and the Taliban. Two months earlier, the DOJ announced [JURIST report] that detainee Khaled Al-Mutairi who had been alleged of having fought against American troops in Afghanistan was transferred after his almost eight years of detention after a judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] ordered [JURIST report] the release in July.