This was announced during a press conference held on the occasion of the visit of the defense team of one of the Kuwaiti detainees to Kuwait. The press conference was held in Dasman Complex yesterday. Fayiz Mohammed Ahmed Al-Kandari and Fouad Mahmoud Al-Rabiah will be tried in the US and Fawzi Khaled Abdullah Fahad Al-Odah and Khalid Abdullah Mishaal Al-Mutairi will be handed over to Kuwait authorities.
Talks about detainees’ return intensified after the US President Barack Obama announced plans to close Gitmo by the end of 2009, and the detainees to either be tried or handed over to their countries of origin.
Establishing a rehabilitation center for the detainees who are handed back to Kuwait was one of the conditions for the release of the detainees demanded by the US Administration. The Center, which is located in an isolated facility in the Central Prison will be completed by June-end, said Khaled Al-Odah, Head of the Kuwait Family Committee, a group for the families of the Kuwaiti detainees and a father of Fawzi Al-Odah.
Two American lawyers who represented Kuwaiti inmates detained for over seven years in Guantanamo, visited Kuwait as part of Fayiz Al-Kandari’s defense team, and not representing the US government. According to Maj. Barry Wingard, Fayiz will never be tried in US federal court. "The reason is that there is not enough proof to try him," Wingard said, elaborating that he is an Iraqi war veteran with 15 years experience with the US military service. Maj. Kit Crane was also part of the defense team that visited
Kuwait and held talks with Kuwaiti officials and relatives of Fayiz.
Al-Odah explained that the return of Kuwaiti detainees to Kuwait has been conditioned by establishing the rehabilitation center. "The US government insisted on having the rehabilitation program as the main condition to release the detainees, Al-Odah said. He explained that by the end of the month, the rehabilitation center will be fully-equipped. A special booklet about the rehabilitation and treatment program with complete plans is also in the works.
Previously, Kuwaiti courts on three instances acquitted the other eight detainees who underwent the rehabilitation program and were set free.
