Federal Judiciary

Uighurs’ lawyer urge immediate release

By Akin Gump Supreme Court Practice Group

Lawyers for 17 Guantanamo Bay detainees who are members of a long-persecuted Chinese Muslim minority urged leadeers of the new Obama Administration on Thursday to order the immediate release of the prisoners, to live at least temporarily in the U.S.  The plea was made in a letter to Attorney General-designate Eric H. Holder, Jr., Acting Attorney General Mark R. Filip, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

Noting that President Obama on Thursday ordered a new review of every Guantanamo detainee’s situation, as part of a plan to close the prison at the U.S. Naval base in Cuba, the Uighurs’ attorneys wrote: “There is literally nothing left to review…The executive branch, the judiciary, and Members of Congress all have acknowledged that the Uighurs should be released.”

It added: “The issue for the Obama Administration is not whether the Uighurs should be released, but rather where they should be released.. We urge the government to release the Uighurs immediately in the only place they can be released — the United States.”

The letter said acceptance of the prisoners into this country “would encourage other countries to accept the significant number of Guantanamo detainees who are cleared for release but who cannot be repatriated.”  Years of efforts to resettle the 17 Uighurs in another country had not yet succeeded, the attorneys noted.  They cannot be returned to their homeland in China because of persecution of their sect, the attorneys have said.

A federal judge more than three months ago ordered that the government transfer the Uighurs to the U.S., to examine the conditions under which they could live here at least temporarily while awaiting possible resettlement.  But that order has been put on hold while the D.C. Circuit Court considers a Bush Administration challenge to any transfer order from a court.

The Circuit Court held a hearing in the case on Nov. 24, but has not yet ruled.

The Uighurs’ lawyers suggested two alternative ways for the government to release the Uighurs.  First, they proposed that the government act directly to carry out the transfer to the U.S. under the new Executive Order for Guantanamo detainees, and, second, they suggested the government withdraw its pending appeal in the Circuit Court, thus leaving it to U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina to proceed to arrange the transfer.

The attorneys said they were “amenable to the imposition of reasonable release conditions, such as, for example, monitoring, by the Court in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security.”

As they had done in federal court, the attorneys for the 17 individuals noted the “detailed resettlement arrangements” that already are in place for their movement to the U.S., to live in a community of Uighurs in the Washington, D.C., area.

The letter also noted that the government previously had told Judge Urbina that “it had no evidence that any of the men, if released, would present any risk to the public.”  That paralleled the view of military authorities that the men “were no threat to anyone,” it added.

Full post as published by SCOTUSBLOG on January 23, 2009 (boomark / email).