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US seeking 60-day delay in Guantanamo military trials

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Obama administration on Wednesday sought a two-month delay in trials for detainees at Guantanamo Bay while new options are considered. While trials have been on hold since President Barack Obama announced the planned closure of Guanatanamo in January, the government declared its intention in a filing with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in the case of Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a Guantanamo detainee who has been held since 2002. The government filed a brief in response to a motion to stay proceedings and a petition to rule the Military Commissions Act of 2006 unconstitutional filed by al-Shibh's lawyers. One of the options being considered by the administration to handle the cases of the more than 200 detainees still at Guantanamo is moving the trials to federal court, an option that is also being considered for al-Shibh. While the Obama administration decides what to do with Guantanamo detainees who are under investigation or who have been charged with crimes, a number of former detainees are being relocated around the globe. On Wednesday, Hungary said that it would select one Guantanamo detainee to be relocated who is not under investigation by the US, and who cannot return to his home country. Earlier this month, three Chinese Uighur Muslims agreed to be relocated to the Pacific island nation of Palau. In late August, Portugal accepted two Syrian nationals , and five other EU members agreed to give serious consideration to receiving former detainees.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on September 17, 2009 (boomark / email).