Washington
23 June 2008
A U.S. federal appeals court has struck down the U.S. military'sclassification of a Guantanamo Bay detainee as an enemy combatant. VOA's Michael Bowman reports, this is the first time the U.S. courtsystem has overruled the Bush administration's designation of adetainee since the Guantanamo facility began operations in early 2002.
Thecourt ruled in favor of a Chinese Muslim, Huzaifa Parhat, who has spentthe last six years in detention and is one of more than 100 detaineesto challenge their enemy combatant status in the U.S. judicial system. The court directed the U.S. military to release Parhat, transfer himout of Guantanamo, or hold a new proceeding to once again determine hisstatus.
The court announced its decision without providing anydetails, saying the ruling contains classified information. TheDepartment of Defense did not immediately comment on the matter.
Humanrights groups say the appeals court ruling is a landmark decision forGuantanamo detainees, yet one with little practical benefit for Parhat.
Stacy Sullivan is a counter-terrorism advisor for New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"He[Parhat] will probably not be released," she said. "He is a ChineseUighur, and there are a number of Chinese Uighurs being held atGuantanamo who are already declared no longer enemy combatants. Butthey cannot leave Guantanamo because they have nowhere to go. Theycannot be sent back to China because they have a well-founded fear oftorture [in China], and the United States to its credit will not sendthem back there. So the Uighurs are pretty much stuck in Guantanamo."
In2006, the United States released five Uighurs from Guantanamo andresettled them in Albania. China, which regards the Uighurs asterrorists and separatists, demanded Albania to return them to China.Albania did not comply.
U.S. authorities believe some Uighurshave links to al-Qaeda. But they admit the Uighurs held at Guantanamonever fought against the United States, nor did they take part in the9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
Human RightsWatch's Stacy Sullivan says the plight of the Guantanamo Uighurs pointsto a real dilemma facing the United States if at some point it decidesto close Guantanamo, an action favored by both presumptive Republicanand Democratic presidential nominees.
"There are about 50detainees there who have said they do not want to go home because theyfear being tortured: Uzbeks, Libyans, Uighurs, a few othernationalities," she said. "What is to be done with them? It is simpleenough to transfer those for whom we have evidence of terrorism and trythem in our federal court system. But the 50 detainees who cannot gohome, it is unclear what is going to happen to them, and that is goingto make closing Guantanamo really difficult."
The federalappeals court ruling follows a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier thismonth affirming the right of Guantanamo suspects to challenge theirdetention in U.S. civilian courts.