Legal Commentary

Federal Judge Orders Release of Yemeni Detainee at Guantanamo

By Jeralyn

Via the Miami Herald, a federal judge yesterday granted the Habeas petition of Yemeni Mohammed Hassan, finding he was was illegally detained at Guantanamo.

Hassen argued at a 2004 status hearing at Guantanamo that the first time he heard of al Qaida was "in this prison.'' He claimed that he had been unjustly rounded up in a March 2002 dragnet by Pakistani security forces in the city of Faisalabad that targeted Arabs, including himself a student of Islam.

The number of detainees determined to be unlawfully held at Guantanamo by federal judges is now 36.

The win-loss scorecard was 14-36 on Wednesday. Civilian judges have upheld the military detentions of 14 other foreign men among the 181 war on terror captives at the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.

As Glenn Greenwald writes today in A Disgrace of Historic Proportions, 72% of the 50 detainees who have brought habeas petitions since the Supreme Court ruling allowing them, have won.

The Obama Administration opposed Hassan's petition even though he had been cleared for release by the Bush Administration.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 28, 2010 (boomark / email).