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Vol. 73/No. 15      April 20, 2009

 
Court rules 3 can sue for
release from Bagram jail
 
BY SETH GALINSKY  
In spite of opposition from the White House, a federal district court ruled April 2 that three prisoners held at the U.S. air base in Bagram, Afghanistan, can sue for their release in U.S. civilian courts. John Bates, the judge in the case, is still reviewing the request of a fourth prisoner.

The suit was brought on behalf of Fadi al-Maqaleh, a Yemeni citizen who was detained outside of Afghanistan in 2003; Amin al-Bakri, a Yemeni taken into custody by U.S. forces in Thailand in 2002; Redha al-Najar, a Tunisian who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002; and Haji Wazir, an Afghan citizen who was grabbed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2002. The judge delayed a decision on Wazir, citing potential “friction” with the Afghan government.

The administration of President Barack Obama argued that the four men have no right to habeas corpus and can be detained indefinitely because they are in a “war zone.” This is a position first argued by the George W. Bush administration and adopted by the Obama administration.

The decision of the judge does not apply to most prisoners at the base, still considered “enemy combatants” by Washington. Citing a 2008 Supreme Court decision in relation to some prisoners at Guantánamo, Bates said that only those prisoners at Bagram “who are not Afghan citizens, who were not captured in Afghanistan and who have been held for an unreasonable amount of time—here over six years” have the right to sue in U.S. court.

He also ruled that the right of habeas corpus does not become available immediately upon capture but only after a “reasonable amount of time” in U.S. custody. Three of the prisoners have been detained by Washington for seven years and one of them for six years.

Judge Bates noted, “The only reason these petitioners are in an active theater of war is because” the U.S. military brought them there.

Claiming the three prisoners are beyond the jurisdiction of U.S. courts “resurrects the same specter of limitless executive power” that the Supreme Court rejected in 2008 during the presidency of George W. Bush, Bates said in his decision.

The U.S. military currently holds some 600 prisoners at the Bagram base, all but 20 allegedly seized inside Afghanistan. A $60 million expansion of the Bagram prison is planned to increase its capacity to 1,000, four times the 240 currently held on Guantánamo.
 
 
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U.S. gov’t boosts aid to Pakistani military
2,000 in N.Y. rally against Iraq, Afghanistan wars  
 
 
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