<html>
<body>
<font size=3><br><br>
<br>
</font><h1><b>Guantanamo review offers hope to British
prisoners</b></h1><font size=3><a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=543718&host=3&dir=70" eudora="autourl">http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=543718&host=3&dir=70<br><br>
<br>
</a></font><h3><b>By Andrew Buncombe in Washington and Anne
Penketh<br><br>
<br><br>
</b></h3><h4><b>23 July 2004</b></h4><font size=3>The four British
prisoners at Guantanamo Bay could be released after a legal review being
carried out behind closed doors by US military officers, a senior British
official said yesterday.<br><br>
The official said that the British prisoners could be released and,
presumably, allowed home without charge.<br><br>
Just a few months ago the Bush administration insisted that the four
Britons were "too dangerous" to be released.<br><br>
"[The four] could find themselves released as a result of this
process," said the British official.<br><br>
That process, due to begin next Monday or Tuesday, involves the
interviewing by US military officers of more than 600 prisoners held at
Guantanamo Bay to determine the legality of their detention. The initial
hearings, or Combatant Status Review Tribunals, will be held in private
until arrangements for the press can be made.<br><br>
The Pentagon announced the hearings after a Supreme Court ruling that the
so-called "enemy combatants" - most seized after the US-led war
against al-Qa'ida and the Taliban in Afghanistan - had the legal right to
challenge their detention. Until then the Bush administration had argued
that the US had the right to order their detention without access to
lawyers or the courts.<br><br>
Reports suggest that there is likely to be three review tribunals, with
three officers sitting on each panel. The panels will conduct
one-time-only reviews.<br><br>
If a panel determines that the prisoner is not an enemy combatant, then
the case will be sent to the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to
decide whether the detainee should be returned to his country. Detainees
still judged to be a danger to the US would continue to be
held.<br><br>
Critics of the process say the hearings are little more than a
distraction from the Supreme Court's ruling, which gave the prisoners
access to the federal court. The prisoners will be assigned military
assistants, but not lawyers, to help to prepare them for their
hearings.<br><br>
"It is a complete scam," said Clive Stafford Smith, a lawyer
who has filed suits on behalf of the British prisoners, along with three
British residents also being held. "It is a total mockery and
designed to give them some cover when they eventually release these
people."<br><br>
Jeffrey Fogel, legal director of the Centre for Constitutional Rights,
told CNN: "The Supreme Court ruling requires access to legal
representation. This process is an elaborate window-dressing and an
attempt to subvert that ruling and the rule of law."<br><br>
Five Britons were released from Guantanamo Bay in February, but another
four remain - Feroz Abbasi, Moazzam Begg, Martin Mubanga and Richard
Belmar. Three British residents, Bisher al-Rawi, Jamil al-Banna and Jamal
Abdullah, are also being held there.<br><br>
Last month the Supreme Court ruled that the prisoners from President
George Bush's "war on terror" could not be held indefinitely
without access to the courts. The court's ruling overturned a lower court
decision that the prison, on a US naval base in Cuba, was outside the
courts' jurisdiction because the base was not on sovereign US territory.
<br><br>
<br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
</font><font size=3><a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">www.freedomarchives.org</a></font></body>
</html>