Legal terror setback for Bush

2003-12-19 08:06

Washington - US courts on Thursday dealt a double blow to President George W Bush's prosecution of the war on terror, with rulings that his administration was abusing the rights of detainees.

One court said inmates at the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be allowed access to lawyers and the court system. A second ruled that an American, Jose Padilla, suspected of involvement in an al-Qaeda plot, could not be held as an enemy combatant.

In San Francisco, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals made a 2-1 decision harshly critical of the detention of the 660 prisoners at Guantanamo without charge or the protection of the Geneva Convention.

Most were captured in Afghanistan when the United States toppled the Taliban regime and routed the al-Qaeda network responsible for the September 11 attacks in 2001.

"Even in times of national emergency ... it is the obligation of the judicial branch to ensure the preservation of our constitutional values and to prevent the executive branch from running roughshod over the rights of citizens and aliens alike," the court said.

The ruling was issued in a case filed by Belaid Gherebi on behalf of his brother, Faren, a Libyan who is being held at Guantanamo.

The court said it could not accept that the US administration possessed the "unchecked authority" to detain anyone under US jurisdiction and control "without permitting such prisoners recourse of any kind to any judicial forum, or even access to counsel."

Such a position was "so extreme" that it raised the "gravest concerns" under both US and international law.

The court's findings are unlikely to have any short-term impact, as the US Supreme Court is expected to rule on the whole issue of the Guantanamo detainees next year.

Prior to Thursday's decision, US authorities had taken a small step by naming a military defence counsel for one of six detainees at Guantanamo who has been singled out by Bush for possible trial by a military commission.

Bad news for the government

The other bad news for the government came when a federal appeals court in New York ruled that Bush did not have the right to detain an American citizen seized on US soil, as an "enemy combatant" and ordered his release within 30 days.

Jose Padilla - suspected of plotting with al-Qaeda a radioactive bomb attack on US soil - has been held without charge in South Carolina since June last year.

"Presidential authority does not exist in a vacuum," the court said in another 2-1 majority decision that stressed Bush would require specific Congressional authorisation to detain Padilla in such a fashion.

"The president's inherent constitutional powers do not extend to the detention as an enemy combatant of an American citizen seized within the country away from a zone of combat," it said.

Noting that Padilla was alleged to have committed "heinous crimes," the court said he should be transferred to the appropriate civil authorities who can bring criminal charges against him.

The White House described the ruling as "troubling and flawed".

- AFP