Fouad Mahmoud al Rabiah | |
---|---|
Born |
Kuwait City, Kuwait |
June 24, 1959
Detained at | Guantanamo |
Alternate name | Fouad Mahoud Hasan Al Rabia |
ISN | 551 |
Charge(s) | All charges dropped in 2009 |
Status | Won his habeas corpus, released after 8 years |
Fouad Mahmoud al Rabiah (born June 24, 1959) is a Kuwaiti, who was held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba from May 2002 to Dec 2009. Al Rabia's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 551.
Al Rabia was an executive with Kuwait's national airline before his wrongful arrest and extradition. He had studied in the United States, and described himself as an America-phile. He is also a philanthropist, along with members of his family, and they regularly followed-up to observed in person the charitable enterprises they donated to. He had routinely made preliminary and follow-up field trips to check on projects they had donated to. In 2001 he described traveling to Afghanistan, for charitable purposes.
Al Rabia was to face charges in 2008 before a Guantanamo military commission but all charges were dropped in 2009.
In September 2009 Al Rabia's habeas corpus petition concluded, and US District Court Judge ordered that he be released "forthwith". That release occurred on December 9, 2009. Al Rabiah's lawyers called on President Barack Obama to apologise on behalf of the United States and provide "appropriate compensation" to al Rabiah for his ordeal.
On 22 October 2008 the Office of Military Commissions filed charges against Fouad Al Rabia and Fayiz Al Kandari.
On August 12, 2009 Fouad Al Rabia's Defense Counsel, Lieutenant Commander Kevin Bogucki asserted his clearance for travel to Kuwait was being withheld.
All charges dropped in 2009.
The documents published when charges were proposed against Fouad al Rabia included the weights recorded by the camp's medical staff.
CNN published an article based on interviews with Fouad and other former Guantanamo captives, entitled "Former Guantanamo inmates tell of confessions under 'torture'". Al Rabiah told Jenifer Fenton he was tortured by his initial Northern Alliance captors, tortured in the Kandahar detention facility, tortured in the Bagram Collection Point, and tortured in Guantanamo. He told her he had been interrogated over 200 times, including "lots and lots of torture". Al Rabiah showed Fenton a copy of a two-page letter found in Tora Bora that he was tortured into confessing he wrote. The letter's author wrote that he and his son Abdullah lead an attack in Afghanistan in 1991. However, while Al Rabiah's son is named Abdullah, he was only one year old in 1991.