U.S. Court Declares It Has No Jurisdiction over Guantanamo Prisoners
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This ruling is a major victory for the Bush administration, which has been anxious to keep the detainees away from the U.S. legal system |
WASHINGTON,
August 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – A U.S. court found
Wednesday, July 31, that it has no jurisdiction in Guantanamo, Cuba
and refused to hear a suit by relatives seeking the release of accused
as Taliban or Al-Qaeda fighters held by the U.S. military there.
Relatives
of 12 Kuwaitis, two Britons and an Australian held at the US naval
base in Cuba filed a writ of habeas corpus, which compels officials to
justify continued custody of a prisoner, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
“The
court concludes that the military base of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is
outside the sovereign territory of the United States (and) writs of
habeas corpus are not available to aliens held outside the United
States,” said federal court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
Lawyers
for the families of the men - Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal from the
U.K., Australian David Hicks, and the Kuwaitis - had argued they
should have the right to know why they were being held and have access
to legal counsel.
The
BBC said that this ruling was a major victory for the Bush
administration, which has been anxious to keep the detainees away from
the U.S. legal system.
Prosecutors
had feared that a successful lawsuit would open the way for other
detainees at the base to make similar claims, the BBC’s online news
service reported.
The
judge rejected the argument that the Guantanamo naval base constitutes
the equivalent of a port of entry to U.S. territory, as well as
another argument that Washington exercises de facto sovereignty over
the territory that the United States uses under a 99-year lease from
Cuba.
Kollar-Kotelly
added that the decision does not prejudice any rights the prisoners
may have under international law.
The
number of prisoners captured in Afghanistan and held in Guantanamo has
risen to 534 men, of 39 nationalities.
Washington
has kept them in a judicial limbo, refusing them the status of
prisoner-of-war as well as the customary protections. Washington calls
them foreign “enemy combatants” held outside U.S. territory solely
under the authority of the president as commander-in-chief in a time
of war.
The
prisoners are denied access to lawyers and are under constant
interrogation. Washington has refused even to release their names.
Although
the families of the men said they might be held indefinitely or could
end up appearing without representation before a military tribunal,
which had the power to impose the death penalty, Judge Kollar-Kotelly
said the men might not be held indefinitely because global courts, the
U.N. and the men’s own governments had the power to ask the U.S.
about their fate.
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