Judge allows Guantanamo prisoners to challenge confinement
A judge ruled today that some foreign terror suspects held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, can challenge their confinement in US courts and she criticised the Bush administration for holding hundreds of people without legal rights.
Federal Judge Joyce Hens Green, handling claims filed by more than 50 detainees, said the Supreme Court made clear last year that they have constitutional rights that lower courts should enforce.
The war on terror “cannot negate the existence of the most basic fundamental rights for which the people of this country have fought and died for well over 200 years,” she wrote in Washington.
The decision conflicts with a ruling two weeks ago by another federal judge based in Washington who found that last year’s landmark Supreme Court ruling did not provide detainees at Guantanamo Bay the legal basis to win their freedom.
About 550 detainees are being held at the US Navy base, accused of being enemy combatants.
