CHANTILLY, Va. — A Virginia teenager who asserts he was beaten and tortured while stuck in Kuwait for a month after apparently being placed on the US government’s no-fly list was reunited with his family near Washington yesterday.
Gulet Mohamed of Alexandria, 19, greeted family members at Dulles International Airport after a 14-hour flight from Kuwait. Mohamed said it felt great to be back in the United States and expressed concern for others in the same situation he was in.
“There are probably people out there being tortured like I was, whose voices are not being heard,’’ he said.
Mohamed said he was blindfolded, beaten, and whipped while detained in Kuwait. He and his lawyers said the detention was at the behest of US authorities, who questioned him about travel in 2009 to Yemen and Somalia. His return to the United States was delayed after US authorities apparently placed him on the no-fly list.
A judge said Mohamed’s situation appeared to be a “clear violation’’ of his rights and was poised to order the government to allow his return until government lawyers said they were voluntarily going do so.
Mohamed is a naturalized US citizen who was born in Somalia and immigrated at age 3. In March 2009, he traveled to Yemen and Somalia to learn Arabic.
Associated Press
