3 Bahreinis, 5 Kuwaitis returned from Guantanamo Prison

Three Bahraini men , Salman Ibrahim Al Khalifa, Abdullah Al-Noaimi and Adil Kamil Abdullah Al Haji returned to Bahrein on Friday aboard a chartered jet from Guantanamo Prison to Bahrain. They were met by Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, other ministry officials, Shura Council members and MPs involved in campaigning for the detainees' release. His Majesty King Hamad has intervened personally to help secure the detainees' release, by bringing up their cases with the US administration during his visits to the US.

The three were arrested four years ago by Pakistani authorities and handed over to U.S. forces during the 2001 war in Afghanistan. "The three have arrived and they are at their homes," said Adel al-Moawdah, the deputy speaker of Bahrain's parliament who has been pushing for their release.

Al-Moawdah told The Associated Press the men were interviewed early Saturday by prosecution officials before being sent home.

"I don't think they will be charged with anything," he said. "There is nothing to charge them with."

Abdullah Al Noaimi has alleged that he was physically assaulted by US soldiers in Kandahar air base in Afghanistan, stripped and sexually humiliated. He says that he witnessed detainees being bitten by dogs in Kandahar. (Amnesty International Doc Ref AI Index: AMR 51/093/2005) His Combatant Status Review Tribunal CSRT document (2 pages) is available on the web here


On 26 September 2004, at his CSRT , Adil Kamil Abdullah Al Haji, was confirmed as an "enemy combatant"

Q: Adil, do you have any other evidence to present to this Tribunal?
A: I don’t have any other proof or evidence. All what I have is my biography. Everybody knows me in Bahrain. I am a very correct person. I have never had any problems with the government or anything.
Q: Anything else?
A: I have no proof. I have been here for two years. I don’t have anything.

(Amnesty International Doc Ref AI Index: AMR 51/083/2005)
His CSRT papers (35 pages) are here

On 9th September Salman Ibrahim Al Khalifa was confirmed as an enemy combatant at his CSRT papers (2 pages) here He is the son of Bahreini leader Shaikh Ibrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa .

Essa Al Murbati, Salah Abdul Rasool Al Blooshi and Juma Al Dossary, are three other Bahreinis who remain in Guantanamo. Information Minister and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar says Bahrain will continue to work for the release of the remaining three Bahrainis, still held at the US camp, said Dr Abdul Ghaffar.

Five Kuwaitis were released on 3/1/05 including Abdul-Aziz al-Shimmiri, 32, who has been on a hunger strike protest since since Aug. 9 and was being force-fed by stomach tubes surgically inserted at the Guantanamo hospital.

These transfers brings the known total of detainees sent to other governments to 73. Another 179 are said to have been released leaving approximately 500 detainees at the Guantanamo Prison.

Saudi state media said a Saudi detainee, Majid al-Shamri, had returned to Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the US Navy Fifth Fleet.

Recent blogs on same topic here