Let's Toll the Bell

It is always an honour to Toll the Bell for the Hour of the Finest, for the ones in flesh that deliver what many of us can only hope.

US court rules Guantanamo detainees should be allowed lawyers (19/12/2003)

WASHINGTON (AFP) A US federal appeals court, in a setback for the Bush administration, ruled that detainees at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be allowed access to lawyers and US courts.

The 2-1 ruling delivered by the San Francisco-based US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was the second blow delivered Thursday to legal maneuvers by the administration of President George W. Bush in its "war on terror."

Earlier in the day, a federal appeals court in New York ruled that Bush did not have the right to detain Jose Padilla, an American citizen seized on US soil, as an "enemy combatant" and ordered his release within 30 days.

The San Francisco-based appeals court issued its ruling in a case filed by Belaid Gherebi on behalf of his brother, Faren, a Libyan who is being held without charge at Guantanamo along with hundreds of other men captured in the US "war on terror."

The court was harshly critical of the detention of the prisoners at Guantanamo without charge or the protections of the Geneva Convention.

"Even in times of national emergency -- indeed, particularly in such times -- it is the obligation of the Judicial Branch to ensure the preservation of our constitutional values and to prevent the Executive Branch from running roughshod over the rights of citizens and aliens alike," said Justice Steven Reinhardt, writing for the majority.

"We simply cannot accept the government's position that the Executive Branch possesses the unchecked authority to imprison indefinitely any persons, foreign citizens included, on territory under the sole jurisdiction and control of the United States, without permitting such prisoners recourse of any kind to any judicial forum, or even access to counsel," Reinhardt said.

"In our view, the government's position is inconsistent with fundamental tenets of American jurisprudence and raises most serious concerns under international law," the justice said.

"Under the government's theory, it is free to imprison Gherebi indefinitely along with hundreds of other citizens of foreign countries, friendly nations among them, and to do with Gherebi and these detainees as it will, when it pleases, without any compliance with any rule of law of any kind, without permitting him to consult counsel and without acknowledging any judicial forum in which its actions may be challenged," he added.

"To our knowledge, prior to the current detention of prisoners at Guantanamo, the US government has never before asserted such a grave and startling proposition," he said. "It is the first time that the government has announced such an extraordinary set of principles -- a position so extreme that it raises the gravest concerns under both American and international law."

Some 660 prisoners are being held at Guantanamo Bay. Most of them were captured in Afghanistan when the
United States toppled the Taliban regime and routed al-Qaeda's network, responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The ruling by the 9th Circuit Court was the first by any court affirming that Guantanamo detainees should be allowed access to lawyers and to the US judicial system, but is likely to be supplanted by a US Supreme Court ruling expected soon.

The Supreme Court agreed last month to hear a similar case.

Reed Brody, legal counsel for Human Rights Watch, welcomed the ruling by the 9th Circuit.

"The Bush Administration thought that by holding the detainees on Guantanamo, it could keep them out of the reach of the Constitution and the courts," he said. "Guantanamo has become America's shame.

"Today's decision is a great victory for the rule of law because it says that even these prisoners must have access to the courts," Brody said.