Kuwaiti detainee at Guantanamo sent back home

A Kuwaiti national detained at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba was transferred Wednesday back to his homeland, where he will be under the control of the Kuwaiti government, the US Justice Department said Wednesday, dpa reported.

Fouad Mahmoud al-Rabiah, 50, was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001, according to a New York Times listing of Guantanamo prisoners.

According to a summary of the evidence against him, he was working at a health club in Kuwait in September 2001 when he was approached about going to Afghanistan "for jihad."

He apparently travelled to the front lines in Bagram, Afghanistan, in October 2001. A witness said he had delivered a suitcase full of money to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, according to the summary.

In September, a federal court ruled that al-Rabiah could no longer be detained at Guantanamo Bay.

There are still about 215 detainees in the prison at the US naval installation in Cuba, down from about 250 at year's begin. Another 116 have been identified as eligible to be transferred to other countries, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates said recently.

Since 2002, more than 550 detainees have departed Guantanamo Bay prison for other countries after being held without charges or trial, sometimes for years.