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Supreme Court to rule on legality of Guantanamo trials
From Tim Reid in Washington
November 08, 2005
THE US Supreme Court is to rule on the legality of military tribunals to prosecute Guantanamo Bay terror suspects, it was announced yesterday.
In the greatest challenge yet to President Bush’s powers to detain and try terrorist suspects, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by Osama bin Laden’s driver on whether his trial before a Guantanamo military tribunal is legal. If the court rules against the Bush Administration, the military tribunal process at Guantanamo Bay will be made illegal, giving the White House the challenge of what to do with the 500 detainees held at the Cuban detention facility.
Last summer the Supreme Court, whose decisions must be followed by the US Government, dealt a defeat to President Bush when it ruled, 6-3, that Guantanamo prisoners could challenge their incarceration as “enemy combatants” in US courts. Foreign governments, including Downing Street, have criticised the tribunals as fundamentally unfair because the prisoners have no rights under the Geneva Conventions and limited rights as defendants. All seven Britons held at Guantanamo were sent back to Britain.
The Bush Administration has argued that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to foreign “enemy combatants” and that the military tribunals, where defendants are not allowed to see much of the evidence presented against them, are lawful.
LINK
From Tim Reid in Washington
November 08, 2005
THE US Supreme Court is to rule on the legality of military tribunals to prosecute Guantanamo Bay terror suspects, it was announced yesterday.
In the greatest challenge yet to President Bush’s powers to detain and try terrorist suspects, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by Osama bin Laden’s driver on whether his trial before a Guantanamo military tribunal is legal. If the court rules against the Bush Administration, the military tribunal process at Guantanamo Bay will be made illegal, giving the White House the challenge of what to do with the 500 detainees held at the Cuban detention facility.
Last summer the Supreme Court, whose decisions must be followed by the US Government, dealt a defeat to President Bush when it ruled, 6-3, that Guantanamo prisoners could challenge their incarceration as “enemy combatants” in US courts. Foreign governments, including Downing Street, have criticised the tribunals as fundamentally unfair because the prisoners have no rights under the Geneva Conventions and limited rights as defendants. All seven Britons held at Guantanamo were sent back to Britain.
The Bush Administration has argued that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to foreign “enemy combatants” and that the military tribunals, where defendants are not allowed to see much of the evidence presented against them, are lawful.
LINK