Tony Holden is Finally Home From Wrongful Detention in Kuwait
Tony Holden is a 60-year-old US citizen, member of the prestigious Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, and father to six children and six grandchildren. From 2016, he had been working for a US-based defense contractor, Vectrus, supporting Camp Arifjan U.S. Army Base in Kuwait. On November 9, 2022, Tony was arrested and set up by corrupt Kuwaiti police looking to earn bonuses.
The officers reported such an obvious fabrication that a Kuwaiti judge immediately found it to be falsified.
Incredibly, it took over two years of being imprisoned for the injustice to be acknowledged and Tony released.
Tony was held for:
Who is Tony Holden?
Tony Holden is a 60-year-old US citizen and father to six children and six grandchildren. Tony grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, later moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and went on to live for 15 years in the Middle East. He was most recently working for a US-based defense contractor, Vectrus, supporting Camp Arifjan U.S. Army Base in Kuwait. A University of Memphis alumnae and member of the prestigious Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, Tony is known for his exceptional kindness and passion for supporting and mentoring others to succeed. A man of deep faith, Tony does not drink nor do drugs.
“I have known Tony Holden since childhood. We grew up across the street from each other and went to school together from the age of five until he graduated high school two years before me. We have maintained a close relationship throughout our adult lives. He has always been supportive of me as a student, neighbor, friend, and religious leader. To my knowledge, Tony has never used drugs of any kind. Tony has always been a man of great character and a positive influence in the community.”
Pastor Travis Moody, Childhood Friend
What Happened?
On November 9, 2022, two men approached Tony Holden and violently detained him. They were in plain clothes and became violent so quickly that Tony thought he was being kidnapped. The men beat Tony and made him bring them to his home on base. They proceeded to kick down the door, trash the entire apartment, and demanded to know where “the drugs” were. When they couldn’t find any drugs because Tony is a law-abiding, heavily background-checked defense contractor who also just happens to abstain from all drugs and alcohol for religious reasons, they beat him again.
Seeing a photo of his wife and daughter, the men forced Tony to reveal that his family lived in a second off-base apartment and led them there. When there weren’t any drugs at the second apartment either, they beat Tony again, this time in front of his wife and three-year-old daughter.
Not receiving the results they wanted, they took Tony, his wife, and his daughter into the Kuwaiti desert in the dead of night. The officers physically threatened his wife and three-year-old daughter. Tony and his family thought they were going to die that night, and nobody would ever know. Eventually, Tony was coerced into signing a written confession in Arabic to protect his family. After his signed confession, they conducted a drug test, which, unsurprisingly, was negative. Tony then disappeared for two weeks before being charged with drug possession, drug trafficking, and attempting to flee the country in court. He was not granted any legal representation.
A Kuwaiti lawyer contacted Tony’s family, claiming she could “save” Tony for $75,000. Fearing for his life, Tony and his family scrounged up the money. Nothing happened, and the entire scheme was later revealed. The lawyer was also representing an actual drug dealer with an open-and-shut case, but she bribed officials to have Tony charged with the drug dealer’s crimes. The arresting officers knew nothing about Tony because they just needed a scapegoat, any scapegoat, to take the fall, because as the arresting officers, they were entitled to generous bonuses. The judge in Tony’s trial even noted that the police report was obviously fabricated because none of the officers spoke English and had falsified dialogue between themselves and Tony in English. The officers were punished, but Tony was still sentenced to five years in prison. Later, an internal police investigation ruled the confession as coerced, but Tony remained in prison.
When Tony appealed in April 2023 (a predicate necessary to eventually request a pardon), he was assigned a judge known for being harsh on drug cases. To make a statement about how the Kuwaiti government would handle drug use in the country, the judge not only did not find in favor of the appeal but then increased Tony’s sentence to 15 years.
More than two years after his original arrest, Tony Holden was finally deported as part of an intervention by senior State Department officials. Tony was an innocent man when he was arrested, and he remains an innocent man today.
“When we talk on the phone, our conversations have often been introspective and about our life purpose and faith in God. He's demonstrated a rare discipline as a practicing Muslim and in social settings. He’s never been seen drinking wine or partaking of any other mind-altering substances. He even would sometimes get teased about it by family and friends. He’s never been judgmental regarding his choices and only attributes it to a pledge or commitment he made to God for saving his life after he experienced a near-death incident. He’s worked overseas for nearly two decades and felt at home in the region and would have never jeopardized his welcome.”
Venus Jones, Friend Of Twenty Years
And It’s Not Just Tony: A Pattern Of Exploitation
From approximately 2016 to 2022, a significant number of African American defense contractors were targeted with illegal searches, placement of evidence, and exorbitant legal fees required upfront without results. This trend appears to have waned, and the Kuwaiti government has worked hard to address civil rights violations in the system, release foreign prisoners, and address these issues for other foreigners. However, many of these individuals remain in Kuwait’s prisons.
Arrested, Tortured, Imprisoned:
The U.S. Contractors Abandoned in Kuwait
“Dozens of military contractors, most of them Black, have been jailed in the emirate — some on trumped-up drug charges. Why has the American government failed to help them?
All of these Americans share uncannily similar stories. They were private contractors, supporting American
military operations in the Middle East, before being arrested in what were often kick-in-the-door nighttime raids by Kuwaiti police. Some say they were tortured into making false confessions — claims sometimes supported by the State Department’s own records. Most of the contractors say that Kuwaiti police trumped up minor personal drug use into serious trafficking charges, often building off the coerced confessions. All say that they were convicted without due process under Kuwaiti law — assertions that Kuwait’s own police files sometimes support. And they universally complain that the Trump administration has been of little help to them during their ordeals — despite the State Department’s being aware of Kuwaitis torturing Americans.
…the United States has some basic responsibilities to the welfare of all its citizens imprisoned overseas. And frequently, especially under this administration, it goes above and beyond those obligations. Acosta and the others believe there is a simple reason that their predicament has been overlooked: race. All but three of these contractors are Black; not one of them is white.”
