MANAMA, 30 June 2005 — Families of 45 Saudi detainees in Guantanamo Bay have signed authorization documents that allows US lawyers to act on their behalf in US courts. Fifteen of the signatures were obtained by a representative of the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) during a recent visit to Bahrain.

Tina Foster, a lawyer acting for CCR which is coordinating legal assistance for all 540 or so detainees in the US prison camp in Cuba, said that 15 Saudi families had come forward in the past few days to meet the lawyers and sign the authorization documents.

“We hope more families will come forward and sign the documents,” she said, adding: “This is crucial because people need to understand that the detainees there are not nameless, faceless persons and it is important to get their individual stories out and to have them legally represented.”

The CCR and other human rights groups have been organizing the drive to have families sign authorization forums to allow some 400 US lawyers who are volunteering their time and efforts free of charge to secure the release of their relatives.

According to Foster, the majority of the Guantanamo detainees are Arabs with the largest group being 124 Saudis, followed by 100 Yemenis. There are 11 Kuwaitis and six Bahrainis. Reports from the US suggest that about 200 detainees — the majority of them of European and Australian origin — had been returned to their home countries.

Foster reiterated what US lawyers Joshua Colangelo-Bryan and Mark Sullivan from the law firm Dorsey & Whitney that is representing the six Bahraini detainees said here earlier this month that not enough has been done by Arab governments to secure the release of their nationals detained in the US base.

Kuwait Court Clears Ex-Detainee

A Kuwait court yesterday cleared a Kuwaiti national once held at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay on charges including committing an act of an aggression against a foreign nation, his lawyer said.

“The criminal court found Nasser Najr Al-Mutairi innocent of all the charges against him because of a lack of evidence,” Mubarak Al-Shimmari said.

Mutairi, 28, was charged with working for a foreign country and committing an act of aggression against a foreign nation, thus endangering Kuwait’s foreign relations, and training in the use of arms. He was repatriated in January under an agreement between Washington and Kuwait.