The homecoming for a Virginia teenager stuck in Kuwait for a month finally happened Friday morning after an unexpected delay.
A lawyer for 19-year-old Gulet Mohamed of Alexandria, Va., said early Friday that Mohamed was questioned at Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Va., by FBI agents. The lawyer, Gadeir Abbas, said he was denied a request to sit in on the questioning.
The two-hour delay was a disappointment for Mohamed's mother and family, who were eagerly awaiting his arrival at the airport terminal. But that finally happened shortly before 9 a.m., according to NBC Washington's Megan McGrath.
McGrath talked with Mohamed at Dulles. He said he can't wait to shower and go to the mosque tonight with his friends.
Mohamed said it felt great to be back in the United States and expressed concern for others who may be 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 claims he was beaten and tortured while detained for nearly a month in Kuwait at the behest of U.S. authorities. His return to the United States was delayed for weeks because U.S.
authorities had apparently placed him on the no-fly list.
Diane Kelleher, a Justice Department lawyer, refused to confirm in court whether Mohamed is indeed on the no-fly list.
On Friday, Gulet's mother Bella Ali hugged her son and thanked God and everyone who had taken up her son's cause. Gulet's brother, Fatah Mohamed, also thanked God and said his brother "was just trying to get closer to his religion.''
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"You're not going to find anybody who will say anything bad about Gulet," he said. He added that the biggest concern of his family during his brother's ordeal was that "we knew he was in the hands of people who lack principles and morals."
