Abd Al Aziz Sayer Uwain Al Shammeri

Twelve Kuwaiti detainees were held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.

The last Kuwaiti, Fayiz Al Kandari, was repatriated in January 2016. The US had accused the 12 Kuwaitis of being associated with or were members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban. All 12 men denied the charges. Most of the men said they were on charitable missions and all said they were sold to American forces for bounty. None of the Kuwaiti prisoners held in Cuba was ever charged with a crime.

Nasser Al Mutairi (ISN 205) was the first Kuwaiti released in January 2005. Al Mutairi said he traveled to Afghanistan for ribat, according to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal transcripts. In November 2005, the Department of Defense transferred five more prisoners to Kuwait including Adel Al Zamel (ISN 568), who prior to his time in Guantanamo was convicted and sentenced to a year in prison for previous charges of assault against a female college student. Zamel denied assaulting the woman, according to journalist Jenifer Fenton who met with him in Kuwait.

Abdulaziz Al Shammeri (ISN 217) was released at the same time as Al Zamel. He was married and had two children, who in 2001 were six and two years old. He was an Islamic scholar and worked at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs in Kuwait. He was planning to get a Master’s degree in Egypt, but decided before doing so he would spend some time teaching Islamic law in Afghanistan. “In my case I don’t even know why I was transferred there (Guantanamo)... and then I have no idea how I was released,” he told Fenton.

Two prisoners Fouad Al Rabiah (ISN 551) and Khalid Al Mutairi (ISN 213) were ordered released by American courts in 2009. The ruling by which Fouad, an aviation engineer, was freed stated the U.S. government’s evidence was “surprisingly bare,” noting that interrogators used “abusive techniques.” [5] Fouad, who returned to Kuwait in December 2009, was the oldest of the Kuwaiti prisoners. He had a documented history of doing charitable work with reputable organizations in Kosovo, Bosnia and Bangladesh. He planned to help people in Afghanistan. Instead, he lost eight years of his life and missed watching his four children grow up. “I lost so many things, but I know that I was right,” he said. “I know that they were wrong,” according to an interview he gave after his release.[6]

...
Wikipedia