KUWAIT CITY, 18 February 2007 — Defense lawyers yesterday urged a Kuwaiti court to acquit two former prison inmates at Guantanamo Bay, who are accused of fighting US forces in Afghanistan under Al-Qaeda and the Taleban.

The lawyers said the two men, Omar Rajab Amin and Abdullah Kamel Al-Kundari, had gone to Afghanistan on charity work and denied that they ever belonged to any terror network.

“Following the Sept. 11 (2001) attacks, any person who is providing charity assistance to Afghanistan is considered a terrorist,” lawyer Mubarak Al-Shimmari told the criminal court.

Public prosecutors accuse the defendants, who have remained behind bars since being repatriated on Sept. 15, of fighting US and NATO forces in Afghanistan under Al-Qaeda and the Taleban thus undermining Kuwait’s ties with friendly nations.

Another lawyer, Khaled Al-Abduljalil, said the prosecution has failed to produce any evidence to implicate his clients, alleging that the Kuwaiti charges were entirely based on US and Pakistani intelligence information.

The court, however, set March 3 as the date to render a verdict and refused lawyers’ requests to free them on bail.

Amin and Kundari are among eight Kuwaitis who had so far been repatriated from the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Four other Kuwaitis are still being held there.