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Dismissal of terror detainee cases sought

Posted on: Tuesday, 3 January 2006, 19:34 CST

By Deborah Charles

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department will seek to dismiss more than 180 cases involving inmates at Guantanamo Bay who have challenged their detention in court, court documents showed on Tuesday.

The department filed a notice to judges presiding over the cases at the U.S. District Court in Washington to advise them that by the end of next week the Justice Department would file official motions to dismiss the cases.

The notice comes a week after President George W. Bush signed new legislation banning cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners. The anti-torture law also curbs the ability of prisoners being held at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba to challenge their detention in federal court.

The legislation requiring humane treatment of detainees in U.S. custody was originally opposed by the White House. But Bush backed off his original veto threats after Congress voted overwhelmingly to support the amendment, pushed by Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

In a concession to the White House, the bill limits prisoners from going to lower-level civilian courts for relief from confinement. They can only go to an appeals court once they have gone through a military court process.

PRISONER LAWSUITS

The United States has faced criticism at home and abroad for treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo and for holding prisoners indefinitely. Only nine of about 500 prisoners being held at the base have been charged, and the United States has been holding prisoners there since January 2002.

Hundreds of prisoners have filed lawsuits in civilian courts to protest their confinement or to protest conditions of confinement. While some have protested their confinement in general, others have sued over the type of Koran they have been given while others want access to DVDs, a Justice Department official said.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents many of the detainees who have sued in civilian court, has criticized the anti-torture law for eliminating prisoners' access to the U.S. judicial system.

But the Justice Department official, who declined to be identified, said detainees still had the right to appeal, they just had to wait until the military process was completed.

"It affords more judicial review in civilian court than we afford our own military convicted of crimes," the official said.

Panels of military officers, formally called commissions, were due this month to hold hearings in the first U.S. war crimes trials since World War Two. The Pentagon has promised "full and fair" proceedings.

Human rights activists and military defense lawyers have criticized the military commission rules, saying they favor prosecutors, allow hearsay and evidence obtained through torture.

Source: REUTERS

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