KUWAIT CITY: Defense lawyers urged a Kuwaiti judge Sunday to acquit five former inmates of Guantanamo, arguing the trial was politically motivated to appease the emirate's major ally the United States. "I urge you to acquit the five defendants ... because they committed no crime and the public prosecution failed to provide solid material evidence," Mubarak al-Shimmari, one of the lawyers, told the court. "This is not a criminal lawsuit but a politically motivated case ... Why should we put these people on trial for the sake of appeasing our friend the U.S.?"The men are accused of fighting against U.S. forces in Afghanistan under the former Taliban regime, a charge for which they could face a minimum of three years in jail.
Other defense lawyers also challenged the evidence provided by the public prosecution, saying it was entirely based on interrogations by U.S. officers in the prison. The lawyers also cross-examined a police officer who interrogated the men after their return to Kuwait and who acknowledged that he based his investigations and charges on the U.S. interrogations. One of the defense lawyers, Ayedh al-Azemi, said last month the transcripts of the U.S. interrogation were "not a proper investigation" but "simple reports that included neither questions nor answers." Judge Hmoud al-Mutawa set May 21 to issue the verdict.
The five men were repatriated to Kuwait last November 4 after spending almost four years at Guantanamo Bay, a camp set up after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 amid outrage from human rights groups. The former Kuwaiti prisoners are Abdel-Aziz al-Shimmari, who went on a two-month hunger strike before his release from Guantanamo, Adel al-Zamel, Mohammad al-Deehani, Saad al-Azemi and Abdullah al-Ajmi. Each was released on a 500-dinar ($1,700) bail at the start of the trial on March 5, but Zamel was kept in jail to serve a one-year term for another offense. A sixth Kuwaiti, Nasser al-Mutairi, was released in January last year while six more Kuwaitis are still detained in Guantanamo. Mutairi was acquitted by the criminal court but later handed a five-year term by the appeals court.