"The
evidence linking Padilla to the alleged 'dirty bomb' plot is weak at
best," Newman added, charging that his transfer to South Carolina
"is an attempt to detain [him] indefinitely."
After
his arrest as a material witness in Chicago, Al-Mujahir was secretly
moved first to New York, where he was held for a month, and then
transferred by military plane to South Carolina, where he is in
detention at a Navy brig in Charleston.
U.S.
President George W. Bush and other top U.S. officials insisted
Tuesday, June 11, to name the suspect a "bad guy" who would
remain in military custody as long as necessary.
U.S.
District Court Judge Michael Mukasey declined to rule on the defense
petition and gave the government until June 21 to respond.
Federal
prosecutor for Manhattan James Comey declined to comment on the case
Wednesday, but members of his staff said Wednesday that the federal
grand jury investigation was "going forward."
Meanwhile,
Human Rights Watch criticized Wednesday Al-Mujahir’s detention and
labeling him an "enemy combatant."
"To
permit a government that is at war in one part of the world to place
people in military custody without charges elsewhere in the world
without demonstrating participation in the armed conflict would create
a gaping and dangerous loophole to basic human rights
guarantees," said Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth
Ross, quoted by AFP.
 |
|
Al-Mujahir’s
detention “a gaping and dangerous loophole to basic human
rights guarantees," said HRW executive director Kenneth
Ross.
|
"Being
an accused terrorist is not synonymous with being an enemy combatant.
Otherwise, the president could detain and hold anyone without charges
simply by labeling him a member of Al-Qaeda," Roth said in a
statement issued Wednesday, June 12.
Branded
an "enemy combatant," meaning he is not accorded the rights
inherent in the U.S. criminal justice system, Al-Mujahir was placed in
a U.S. Navy prison in South Carolina earlier this week without charges
so federal investigators can interrogate him.
"The
U.S. government apparently wants to be able to question Al-Mujahir
while holding him incommunicado," said Roth.
"But
the government's legitimate desire to obtain information about
terrorist threats does not entitle the president to assume unlimited
powers to place in military custody anyone he identifies as a
terrorist," added the HRW chief.
"Human
Rights Watch questions the government's contention that international
humanitarian law or the laws of war permits [U.S. President George W.
Bush] to unilaterally designate Al-Mujahir an 'enemy combatant' who
may be held by the military without charges or access to an
attorney," the human rights watchdog said in its statement.
