Litigation

Ruling on Bagram Detainees Is a Surprise

By Charlie Hall

Following a federal judge?s surprise ruling in a case involving detainees held in Afghanistan, Deanna Dawson, Justice at Stake?s new Director of Federal Affairs, wrote the following report:

In 2008, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Boumediene v. Bush that prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba may challenge their detention in U.S. courts. Yesterday, attorneys for four detainees held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan argued that the Boumediene decision should be extended to detainees in military prisons overseas.

The Bush Administration argued that the court has no right to review the detentions at Bagram, saying the prisoners are ?enemy combatants? within a zone of active hostilities. If the Court were to exercise habeas corpus jurisdiction in this case, the Administration said, it would ?thrust? the court into the position of reviewing ?the military?s conduct of war overseas.?

Attorneys for the four detainees argued that there is no evidence to suggest that their clients were enemy combatants. They further contended that none of their clients had even been captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan.

Instead, they argued, the four men (one Afghan citizen, one citizen of Tunisia, and two citizens of Yemen) had all been seized in other countries and brought to Afghanistan by U.S. agents. For six years the detainees have been held without any criminal charges, and without access to counsel or the courts.

Following the hearing, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates (photo at right) ordered the government to give the Court up-to-date information regarding: (1) the number of detainees held at Bagram Air Base; (2) the number of Bagram detainees who were captured outside Afghanistan; and (3) the number of Bagram detainees who are Afghan citizens. The government was given until Jan. 16 to comply.

The decision startled many observers. Judge Bates, a Bush appointee, is perhaps best known for his 2007 decision dismissing ex-CIA operative Valerie Plame?s lawsuit against Vice President Cheney and other Bush Administration officials on (more…)

Full post as published by The Gavel on January 08, 2009 (boomark / email).