[JURIST] A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Thursday granted [order, PDF] the habeas corpus petition filed by Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Fouad Al Rabiah, ordering his release. Al Rabiah, a Kuwaiti national, had been held at Guantanamo Bay for nearly eight years under suspicion of aiding al Qaeda and the Taliban. There has been no official response from the Obama administration, but a Department of Justice [official website] spokesperson has said that the order, issued by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is under review [Reuters report]. An unclassified version of the memorandum opinion accompanying the release order is expected to be available next week.

Al Rabiah is one of several Kuwaitis remaining at Guantanamo. Last month, Kollar-Kotelly denied [JURIST report] the habeas petition of Kuwaiti Guantanamo detainee Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad Al Odah. She found that the government had shown that it was more likely than not that he "became part of Taliban and al Qaeda forces" after traveling to Afghanistan and attending a terrorist training camp. In July, she ordered the release [JURIST report] of Kuwaiti detainee Khaled Al-Mutairi.

9/28/09: A partially redacted memorandum opinion [text, PDF] has been released.