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Los Angeles Judge to Consider Petition on Al-Qaeda, Taliban Suspects
With Additional Reporting by Ayesha Ahmad, IOL Washington Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A legal challenge against the detention of Taliban and Al-Qaeda prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, brought by a coalition of civil rights activists, professors and clergy members, is to be heard Tuesday in a Los Angeles court, news agencies reported.
Federal judge Howard Matz agreed late Sunday to consider the allegations that the more than 180 prisoners from the “U.S.-led campaign” on Afghanistan are being held in violation of the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Convention, according to the Los Angeles Times.
A hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday, the daily said, noting that the petition calls for U.S. authorities to produce the prisoners in court, define the charges against them and grant them due-process guarantees.
The civil rights lawyer who is filing the action, Stephen Yagman, said that the petition would force Washington to clarify the status of the prisoners, according to a report by the BBC.
Washington has classed the captives as "unlawful combatants," not prisoners of war, saying that they therefore do not have rights under the 1949 Geneva Convention on the laws of war, provoking international concerns over their treatment.
But international authorities and human rights groups have challenged the categorization, citing the Convention itself, which defines the category of POW's and states that if there is any doubt as to the POW status of prisoners, they should be treated as POW's until they have been determined in court to be otherwise.
Under the Convention, prisoners should not face demeaning or humiliating treatment and should have freedom to exercise their religious beliefs. The Convention also allows prisoners to offer only name, rank and serial number under interrogation.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has sent a delegation to Guantanamo to assess the situation, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Monday the suspects should be treated in line with the Geneva Convention. "The Geneva Convention should apply to all people arrested in such circumstances," Solana told Spanish television.
Amnesty International has also challenged the conditions the prisoners have been held under, including their being chained and hooded on the flight to Cuba and being kept at the base in cages with chain-link walls that expose them to the elements.
Photographs in British newspapers showing a group of kneeling, shackled and handcuffed prisoners wearing dark goggles, earmuffs, mittens and bright orange jumpsuits brought strong international criticism, especially in Europe.
U.S. authorities insist, however, that the prisoners are being humanely treated, saying that they have access to showers, are allowed to pray and otherwise observe their religious duties, and are fed "culturally appropriate meals" three times a day, according to Pentagon spokesperson Victoria Clarke.
Tom Crosson, a spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, said a Muslim Navy officer and cleric would be brought to the base "sometime this week" to attend to the prisoners' needs, AFP reported.
The BBC report also showed a picture of a sign in Arabic at the base that reads "Qibla," pointing the direction towards Mecca for the prisoners to make their prayers.
"We are treating them humanely, as unlawful combatants should be treated," said Crosson, who explained that the British photographs were taken as the detainees emerged from the aircraft and were brought into a "holding" area.
The legal move is the first challenge to U.S. President George W. Bush administration's decision to hold prisoners from the war in Afghanistan at Guantanamo, the Times said, noting that the petition raises some unusual legal issues.
Among them is the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles district court, geographically far from the Cuban base.
The court would also have to decide whether the suspects, a total 144 of whom have now been transferred to the base, were fighting for a government or a terrorist organization.
The petition, was presented by a group of clergy, civil rights lawyers and journalism professors, among them former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark.
The arrival of 14 more prisoners at the U.S.-controlled base in southeastern Cuba on Monday brought the total number of detainees transferred from Afghanistan to 158, a U.S. military official said.
The BBC report said the 14 new prisoners arrived on stretchers, suffering gunshot wounds, and that a military hospital would be established and more wounded prisoners brought for treatment unavailable in Afghanistan, according to U.S. officials.
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