Guantanamo prisoner home after 'outrageous' case thrown out

KABUL - A Guantanamo prisoner once charged with wounding two United States soldiers and their interpreter is home in Afghanistan, one of his lawyers said, months after a war crimes case against him unravelled when a military judge ruled his confession was coerced.

Mohammed Jawad, one of the youngest people held at Guantanamo, was flown from the US base in Cuba and released to his family by Afghan authorities, said Air Force Major David Frakt.

"Jawad is in Kabul with his family," Frakt said.

Frakt said Jawad, now about 21, hoped to go to school and "make up for lost time" after nearly seven years in custody.

US Department of Justice spokesman Dean Boyd said he could not confirm that Jawad was sent home, though a federal judge ordered him released in July. The judge concluded the Government's case against him was an "outrage" and "full of holes".

Jawad had been charged with attempted murder before the special military tribunals at Guantanamo, accused of throwing a grenade into a Jeep carrying the two US Special Forces soldiers and their interpreter in Kabul in December 2002.

The interpreter lost sight in one eye as a result of the attack, authorities have said.

The case was first complicated by doubts about Jawad's age. His lawyers say family accounts suggest he was about 12 when he was arrested. The Pentagon said a bone scan showed Jawad was about 17.

Meanwhile, with the results of Afghanistan's presidential election expected today, supporters of the opposition leader, Dr Abdullah Abdullah, delivered a grim message, threatening violence if their candidate loses.

Standing by the black marble grave of their fallen leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, two former mujahideen fighters said they still had their guns and that they had not forgotten how to use them.

Like most of Afghanistan's Tajik community, they had voted for Abdullah, a former Foreign Minister of Tajik and Pashtun ancestry, who fought alongside Massoud against the Soviet invaders and then the Taleban.

- INDEPENDENT, AP