Washington, March 30: US Federal appeals court has overturned a lower court decision to release Guantanamo Yemeni detainee Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman.
A three-judge panel of US Federal appeals court ruled that it was unlikely that Uthman is innocent.
The court also found that Uthman traveled to Afghanistan along a route used by al-Qaida recruits and was seen at an al-Qaeda guesthouse. Uthman said none of that proved he was a member of al-Qaeda.
US District Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. had ruled that the US government did not prove that Uthman received and executed orders from al-Qaeda, the Associated Press reported.
Uthman has been held at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay for more than nine years.
Washington claims he was one of Osama bin Laden’s bodyguards. But he denies the charge. He says he was mistaken as an al-Qaeda member while fleeing US bombardment in Afghanistan.
Uthman was captured at the Afghan-Pakistani border in December 2001.
——–Agencies