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US may review detainees
15/10/2007 21:19 - (SA)
Washington - The United States is considering new hearings on detainees' controversial "enemy combatant" status at its Guantanamo Bay prison camp, seeking to limit the scope of legal appeals, a judicial source said on Monday.
Officials were considering a repeat of the so-called combatant-status hearings most of which were first held in 2004 and 2005 before a combatant status review tribunal, according to documents from detainees' lawyers.
In the hearings, detainees appear handcuffed and without attorneys before three US military judges. Most of the evidence against them is classed as a military secret and not disclosed to them; it is near impossible to present evidence for a defence.
But detainees can contest the decision on their status in federal appeals court in Washington.
The US government considered the appeals an opportunity to make sure procedures were adhered to properly but this year the court choose to look more closely at the unlimited detentions.
The court has required the government to transmit evidence to the detainees attorneys even if it is confidential. The government is seeking to have that decision reversed, and is considering new hearings without the most classified evidence.
The camp houses about 330 men seized during operations overseas in the wake of the attacks on the United States on September 11 2001, to round up people suspected of threatening US security.
President George W Bush's administration has drawn strong criticism for holding suspects for years without trial at the prison, which rights groups and other opponents have branded unlawful.
- AFP
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