Ethics

Judge Orders Release of Gitmo Detainees

By Ed Brayton

In the first hearing to result from the Supreme Court ruling in Boumediene that the district courts in the DC circuit had to grant habeas corpus rights to detainees held there and hold hearings on whether there was sufficient evidence to continue their detention, a federal judge has ordered the release of 5 Algerians held at Gitmo for 7 years.

For the first time, a federal judge ordered the release yesterday of detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay after evaluating and rejecting government allegations that five men were dangerous enemy combatants.

The government had alleged that the men planned to travel to Afghanistan to attack U.S. forces. But U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ruled that in a series of closed hearings in recent weeks, the Justice Department had not proved that five of the six Algerian detainees at the Cuban facility were enemy combatants under the government's own definition.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on November 24, 2008 (boomark / email).