[Pnews] Guantanamo Bay: US court grapples with detainees' constitutional rights

[Prisoner News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/guantanamo-bay-us-appeals-court-grapples-constitutional-rights-detainees>
Guantanamo
Bay: US court grapples with detainees' constitutional rightsOctober 1, 2921
------------------------------

DC Circuit Court of Appeals appears reluctant to rule over whether
Guantanamo prisoners should have due process rights

[image: Thirty-nine prisoners remain at the Guantanamo Bay prison.]

Thirty-nine prisoners remain at the Guantanamo Bay prison (AFP/File photo)

Published date: 1 October 2021 18:25 UTC | Last update: 6 hours 46 mins ago

A United States
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/www.middleeasteye.net/countries/us> federal
appeals court in Washington DC has found itself at the centre of the legal
storm surrounding whether detainees at Guantanamo Bay
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/www.middleeasteye.net/topics/guantanamo>
have due process rights under the US Constitution, as judges press the
Biden administration about safeguards for prisoners at the notorious
facility.

The full DC Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on Thursday in
the case of Yemeni
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/www.middleeasteye.net/countries/yemen>
national Abdulsalam al-Hela, a 53-year-old man from Yemen who has been held
without charge or trial since 2004.

The Biden administration has backed away from the Trump-era position that
Guantanamo inmates have no right to due process. Still, Justice Department
lawyers pressed the court to rule that Hela's due process rights were not
violated, and altogether avoid deciding a constitutional question that has
remained unanswered for decades.

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/supreme-court-rule-whether-guantanamo-prisoner-can-subpoena-information-black-sites>

US Supreme Court to rule if Gitmo prisoner can subpoena intel on CIA black
sites

Read More »
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/supreme-court-rule-whether-guantanamo-prisoner-can-subpoena-information-black-sites>

While some judges showed concern over the limited legal options available
to Guantanamo detainees to challenge their detention, others appeared
cautious about issuing a sweeping constitutional ruling.

Sarah Harrington, a Justice Department attorney, noted that even if the
court were to rule that Hela be released, it would not affect the
government's ongoing process of transferring him to another country - Hela
was cleared for transfer this year.

"I don't think it would be appropriate for a court to try to impose itself
into the negotiations that are going on," Harrington said
<https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/574732-appeals-court-grapples-with-constitutional-protections-for>,
as quoted by The Hill. "And so, it would just be sort of words on a paper."

Hela's lawyer, David Zionts, however, told the court that the government's
assurance still amounted to "indefinite detention", according
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/guantanamo-due-process-case/2021/09/29/09ad4982-206a-11ec-8200-5e3fd4c49f5e_story.html>
to The Washington Post.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents Guantanamo detainees
in a number of US court cases, filed an amicus brief
<https://ccrjustice.org/sites/default/files/attach/2021/09/CCR%20Amicus%20-%20Al%20Hela%20en%20banc%20-%20merits%20%282%20July%202021%29%20%28with%20ECF%20headers%29.pdf>
in support of Hela saying in a statement
<https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/center-constitutional-rights-comments-important-hearing-due-process>
that the "power to imprison someone indefinitely without charge or trial is
nothing less than tyrannical".

Hela was captured
<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/guantanamo-bay-detainees.html#detainee-1463>
by Egyptian officials in Cairo in 2002, and turned over to the CIA who held
him for 590 days before sending him to Guantanamo Bay in 2004.

'Depriving men of their liberty'

The circuit court is rehearing the case after a three-judge panel on the
court ruled last year that the detainees had no due process rights.

In July, Senator Dick Durbin called
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/united-states-justice-department-aked-support-guantanamo-prisoners-rights-due-process>
on Attorney General Merrick Garland to rethink the government's past legal
position.

"Legal positions or arguments that may have once seemed justified to some
in the aftermath of 9/11 must be viewed in light of current circumstances,"
Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote in a letter:

"Our nation has failed to provide due process to detainees held at
Guantanamo, resulting in the use of unreliable hearsay and coerced or
torture-derived evidence and a shamefully low burden of proof for depriving
men of their liberty."

While US President Joe Biden has vowed to close Guantanamo Bay before he
leaves office, thus far any such efforts have been kept quiet.

Thirty-nine prisoners remain at the Guantanamo Bay prison, with 10 having
been approved for transfer. So far, the Biden administration has
repatriated one prisoner, Abdul Latif Nasser
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-guantanamo-bay-morocco-first-detainee-transferred-biden>,
to his home country, Morocco.

Meanwhile, a dozen inmates are at some stage of a military tribunal process
widely seen as dysfunctional.

The Supreme Court next week will take up the case of Guantanamo "forever
prisoner" Abu Zubaydah
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/supreme-court-rule-whether-guantanamo-prisoner-can-subpoena-information-black-sites>,
who was captured after the 9/11 attacks and is requesting access to secret
evidence related to his alleged CIA-sponsored torture.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20211001/e2f85426/attachment.htm>