Five Guantanamo Bay detainees released
McClatchy Tribune (MCT)
Marisa Taylor
Issue date: 11/24/08 Section: News
In the first ruling of its kind, a federal judge ordered the speedy release Thursday of five Algerian men after concluding the government didn't have the evidence to hold them for nearly seven years in Guantanamo Bay prison.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, was the latest setback for the administration's detention policies and could foretell more court-ordered releases.
Leon, however, backed the continued imprisonment of a sixth Algerian from the same group, concluding that the Justice Department had sufficient evidence he was a supporter of al-Qaida.
One of those ordered released is Lakhdar Boumediene, whose appeal to the Supreme Court became the underpinning of a 5-4 decision that gave Guantanamo prisoners the right to challenge their detention in court. Boumediene, 42, had maintained all along that he was a relief worker with the Islamic Red Crescent.
Leon's decision marked the first time that a lower court has concluded after a habeas corpus hearing that the government lacked evidence to hold Guantanamo detainees as enemy combatants. Now, more than 200 other detainees await similar reviews in Washington's federal court.
Leon said he did not want his ruling to serve as precedent for upcoming cases. Nonetheless, the decision, issued by a judge who originally supported the government's position, is certain to hearten administration critics who think that many detainees are being held in the prison in Cuba without cause.
In an unusual entreaty, Leon urged the administration not to appeal his order releasing the five men.
"Seven years of waiting for our legal system to give them an answer to a question so important is, in my judgment, more than enough," Leon said.
Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, called the decision "another nail in the coffin of the Bush administration's lawless and failed Guantanamo policies."
The decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, was the latest setback for the administration's detention policies and could foretell more court-ordered releases.
Leon, however, backed the continued imprisonment of a sixth Algerian from the same group, concluding that the Justice Department had sufficient evidence he was a supporter of al-Qaida.
One of those ordered released is Lakhdar Boumediene, whose appeal to the Supreme Court became the underpinning of a 5-4 decision that gave Guantanamo prisoners the right to challenge their detention in court. Boumediene, 42, had maintained all along that he was a relief worker with the Islamic Red Crescent.
Leon's decision marked the first time that a lower court has concluded after a habeas corpus hearing that the government lacked evidence to hold Guantanamo detainees as enemy combatants. Now, more than 200 other detainees await similar reviews in Washington's federal court.
Leon said he did not want his ruling to serve as precedent for upcoming cases. Nonetheless, the decision, issued by a judge who originally supported the government's position, is certain to hearten administration critics who think that many detainees are being held in the prison in Cuba without cause.
In an unusual entreaty, Leon urged the administration not to appeal his order releasing the five men.
"Seven years of waiting for our legal system to give them an answer to a question so important is, in my judgment, more than enough," Leon said.
Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, called the decision "another nail in the coffin of the Bush administration's lawless and failed Guantanamo policies."
Be the first to comment on this story