Washington, May 01: The United States and Kuwait are working out differences over returning two Kuwaiti detainees being held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Kuwait’s foreign minister said on Friday.
A lawyer for the detainees said this week the U.S. government was making unfair demands on Kuwait that included putting new restrictions on other former detainees released from the Guantanamo prison to Kuwait last year.
“We have raised the issue of our detainees in Guantanamo,” Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah told reporters, adding that the problem caused hardships for the two governments and the people of Kuwait.
“And we have agreed on a way to resolve this issue in the near future,” he said after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Last year, two Kuwaiti detainees were sent home from the prison after a U.S. judge ordered their release upon reviewing the evidence against them. Another detainee lost his petition for release but is appealing and a fourth case is also pending.
The administration has demanded that the two previously released detainees have their passports taken away, be required to check in with local authorities regularly and be under surveillance by the Kuwaiti government for a period of time, the lawyer, David Cynamon, told Reuters this week.
However, U.S. officials have been concerned about recidivism among detainees who have been released, pointing to cases where some have engaged in suicide bombing attempts and organizing other attacks on the United States.
They have also voiced concern over Kuwait’s policies regarding returned detainees, saying they were at times not as strict as originally envisioned.
A U.S. judge last year denied releasing Kuwaiti Fawzi Al Odah, stating that he failed to provide credible explanations for his travels to Afghanistan, and found that he became part of the Taliban and al Qaeda forces.
His lawyers had argued it was a case of mistaken identity.
The other remaining detainee, Fayiz Al Kandari, has been accused by the U.S. government of being a confidant of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and being an instructor at training camps. His lawyers have argued he was in Afghanistan offering relief aid.
–Agencies