Washington: A Kuwaiti man with links to Al Qaida will remain at the Guantanamo Bay prison, while a second is cleared for transfer home, a US national security panel said on Friday.

Faez Mohammad Ahmad Al Kandari, who has been held at the US prison in Cuba without charge since 2002, is a security threat because he is susceptible to recruitment by extremists, the Periodic Review Board said.

Al Kandari “almost certainly retains an extremist mindset and had close ties with high-level Al Qaida leaders in the past,” the review board said in a ruling posted on a Defence Department website.

A Pentagon profile ahead of his board hearing in June said Al Kandari had served as an Al Qaida recruiter. He likely was a confidante and spiritual adviser to Osama Bin Laden, the Al Qaida leader killed by US forces in 2011, it said.

At the time of the June hearing, the Pentagon gave Al Kandari’s age as 36 or 37.

The Periodic Review Board cleared the transfer home of the second Kuwaiti, Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Awda, 37, who has also been held at Guantanamo without charge since 2002.

The panel said he had had a low level of training and had not been an Al Qaida leader. Al Awda also has extensive family support and has committed himself to take part in Kuwait’s prisoner rehabilitation programme, it said.

In a statement on Friday, his attorney, Eric Lewis, praised Kuwaiti authorities for working with the US on a post-release programme, which includes keeping Al Awda in a rehabilitation centre for at least a year.

“We are grateful to the board for clearing Fawzi for release and for the tremendous effort by the State of Kuwait, at its highest levels, to repatriate its citizens,” Lewis said.

Last fall, Kuwait’s ruler Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah asked President Barack Obama to speed up the process of releasing Al Awda.

Al Awda had never been charged. Back in 2008, the Defence Department labelled him a high-risk detainee and recommended his continued detention. A department memo dated January 2, 2008, said Al Awda was believed to be a member of Al Qaida who had sworn allegiance to Bin Laden.

The detainee’s name was listed on Al Qaida affiliated documents, and he was a reported member of an Al Qaida cell in London. He also was believed to have participated in hostilities against US and coalition forces.

His lawyer said the 37-year-old Al Awda poses no threat to the US and would seek to start a family and work in his father’s plumbing supply business once he is returned to his homeland.

The Periodic Review Board was established to speed up Guantanamo’s closing as ordered by President Barack Obama. The prison holds 149 prisoners.

Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel must inform Congress of US intent to transfer Al Awda to Kuwaiti authorities.

With the latest rulings, the panel has recommended that four prisoners be transferred and that three remain in prison.

Decisions for two inmates are pending.