A three-man team from Kuwait's interior ministry left Kuwait City Tuesday to visit 12 Kuwaiti nationals being held at a US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the father of one of the detainees said.
"They left today and will spend two days in Washington before going to Guantanamo Bay, where they will stay about a week" and meet the Kuwaitis held there, Khaled al-Ouda told AFP.
"I'm very optimistic," Ouda said of the delegation’s visit, adding that letters received by the prisoners' families indicate that restrictions have been eased somewhat. "We believe the security delegation will reveal any misunderstanding concerning the interrogation and any other information," said Ouda, whose 24-year-old son, Fawzi, is amongst the detainees.
Ouda heads a group of detainees' families who are suing for the right to see their sons and for them to be given access to legal counsel. Authorities in the United States have refused to give the detainees prisoner-of-war status, as set out under the Geneva Conventions, and are reserving the right to try them before secret US military tribunals that have the power to impose the death penalty.
A Saudi delegation of interior and foreign ministry officials was allowed to see some of the Saudi detainees held at the US base last month, officials in Riyadh said.
(Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
