US judge orders five Algerians at Guantanamo freed
James Vicini
Reuters North American News Service
Nov 20, 2008 15:53 EST
WASHINGTON(Reuters) - Five of six Algerians held nearly seven years at the
U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba must be released, a federal
judge ruled Thursday in a setback for the Bush administration.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled from the bench after holding the
first hearings under a landmark Supreme Court ruling in June that gave
Guantanamo prisoners the legal right to challenge their continued
confinement.
President-elect Barack Obama has promised to close the prison camp after
he takes office in January. Meanwhile, U.S. judges in Washington are
moving ahead with case-by-case reviews of about 200 detainee legal
challenges.
Reading his ruling as the detainees listened in Guantanamo via a telephone
hookup, Leon said the U.S. government failed to prove the five men who had
been living in Bosnia had planned to travel to Afghanistan to fight
against U.S. forces.
He ordered the U.S. government to take all necessary and diplomatic steps
to facilitate their release "forthwith."
There are about 255 detainees at Guantanamo, which was set up in January
2002 to hold terrorism suspects captured after the Sept. 11 attacks on the
United States by al Qaeda militants. Most have been held for years without
being charged and many have complained of abuse.
The Algerians, who were picked up by Bosnian authorities in October 2001,
were sent in January 2002 to Guantanamo and remain held there as "enemy
combatants" without being charged.
President George W. Bush said in 2002 the six men had been planning a bomb
attack on the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo. But Justice Department attorneys
said last month they no longer would rely on those accusations to justify
the continued detention of the six men.
However they argued the Algerians should be held because they planned to
go to Afghanistan in late 2001 to fight U.S. forces.
CAN'T JUDGE SOURCE'S CREDIBILITY
In ordering the release of the five men, Leon said the allegation was
based on only one unnamed source and he did not have enough information to
judge the source's reliability or credibility.
He ruled the government did provide enough evidence that one of the
detainees, Belkacem Bensayah, supported al Qaeda and planned to fight
against the United States in Afghanistan.
The ruling was the second involving Guantanamo prisoners seeking their
release and another Bush administration defeat.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina ordered the release of 17
Chinese Muslims, members of the Uighur ethnic group, after the government
acknowledged they were not enemy combatants. Their release has been
stayed, pending an appeal.
Leon, who was appointed to the bench by Bush in 2002, held hearings in
November to consider the government's factual basis for holding the six
detainees. The hearings were closed because of classified evidence.
He was the first federal judge to hold a full hearing under habeas corpus
-- a long-standing legal principle by which people can challenge their
imprisonment -- in a Guantanamo case since the Supreme Court's ruling.
The six Algerians were among the more than 30 Guantanamo prisoners who won
before the Supreme Court. The five ordered released were Lakhdar
Boumediene, Mohamed Nechla, Mustafa Ait Idir, Saber Lahmar and Hadj
Boudella.
Nadja Dizdarevic, who is Boudella's wife, told Reuters by telephone in
Bosnia, "This is the victory of justice even though it comes after seven
years of legal struggle."
She said U.S. and Bosnian authorities must ensure that the five get back
to Bosnia, instead of being extradited to Algeria, and must allow them to
join their families.
Leon said the U.S. government can appeal his ruling on the five men, but
strongly urged top administration officials to forgo an appeal that would
take as long as two years.
Leon also cautioned that the case was "unique" and that "few if any" of
the other detainee challenges were like it.
A Pentagon spokesman said, "We are pleased that the court found that
Belkacem Bensayah is an enemy combatant and we are reviewing the ruling
with respect to the other five petitioners."
Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said the ruling demonstrated the
need for Congress to adopt procedures that are fair to the detainee, but
allow "the government to present its case without imperiling national
security." (Editing by Kristin Roberts and Vicki Allen)
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US judge orders five Algerians at Guantanamo freed 
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