Surrounded by family, Gulet Mohamed, 19, of Alexandria, Va., center, gives a statement to the media upon his returm from Kuwait, Friday, Jan. 21, 2011, at Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Va. The teen says he was held for a month against his will in Kuwait before his return to the US. – AP Photo

WASHINGTON: A US teenager landed in Washington Friday after a month in custody in Kuwait during which he says he was severely beaten while being interrogated, an ordeal his attorneys claim was on behalf of the US government.

Gulet Mohamed, a 19-year-old US citizen who lives in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington, landed at 6:30 am (1130 GMT) and was “detained for a little more than two hours” upon his arrival back in the country, Ibrahim Hopper, communication director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told AFP.

Mohamed was released and is “at home with his family,” added Hopper, saying the teen -- who was born in Somalia but grew up in the United States -- did not face any charges “that we know of.”

Earlier this month, the US State Department denied Mohamed had been arrested in Kuwait at the behest of Washington.

CAIR alleges their client was arrested on December 20 at the international airport in Kuwait City, and was subsequently tortured, beaten and threatened by security forces there in a bid to ascertain details of his travels to Yemen and Somalia.

On Tuesday, his lawyers filed a complaint against the US Department of Justice, the FBI and the Terrorist Screening Center, which handles the US no-fly list.