Youngest Guantanamo inmate goes home to a hero's welcome

One of the youngest people ever held at Guantanamo today described his ordeal after being welcomed home to Kabul by his relatives and Afghanistan's president.

Mohammed Jawad, now believed to be 21, spent almost seven years in prison. He was freed by a military judge who ruled he was forced into confessing to wounding American soldiers with a grenade.

Jawad has accused his captors of torturing prisoners, depriving them of food and sleep, and insulting Islam and the Koran. He has told how his hands were bound and stretched behind him, and how he was forced to eat by bending over to put his mouth to a bowl.

He flew into the Afghan capital on Monday. Turbanned men, many who had travelled to Kabul from villages in a nearby province, greeted him with hugs and smiles and he was taken to meet President Hamid Karzai.

Jawad was arrested in Kabul in December 2002 and accused of throwing a grenade at an unmarked vehicle in an attack that wounded two US special forces and their interpreter. Afghan police delivered him into American custody, and about a month later he was sent to the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A federal judge ordered Jawad's release last month after a war crimes case against him unravelled over lack of evidence and age concerns. His family say he was about 12 when he was arrested. But the Pentagon said a bone scan showed he was about 17. Today his relatives were overwhelmed at his return. "I am so happy. It is like Eid," Jawad's uncle Gul Nek said, referring to the biggest Muslim holiday. "They should investigate a case and only then put someone in jail."

Jawad, who was arrested as a boy but arrived home with a beard, said: "I am bursting out of my clothes. I spent a long time in prison and now I am very happy to be back with my family."

Justice Department officials have said the criminal investigation of Jawad was still open but prosecution is unlikely.