US Supreme Court to rule on Guantanamo detentions
The US Supreme Court is to rule on the legality of holding accused terrorists at the Guantanamo military base.
The Supreme Court will hear appeals by detainees at the US military camp in Cuba who claim they are being held illegally.
The decision marks the first time America’s highest court has agreed to hear a case against the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism policies.
The court will review a ruling that lower courts do not have the jurisdiction to consider claims that inmates are being held in breach of international law.
The judges will consider whether the detainees have the right to access to American courts.
Around 600 prisoners from 42 countries are held at the base accused of fighting for al Qaeda and the Taliban. They are currently held without access to their families or lawyers and there have been no charges brought against them.
Appeals against their imprisonment since the Afghan war in 2001 have come from British, Australian and Kuwaiti citizens. The court has combined the appeals and will hear the consolidated case sometime next year.
“The United States has created a prison on Guantanamo Bay that operates entirely outside the law,” lawyers for British and Australian detainees argued.
“Within the walls of this prison, foreign nationals may be held indefinitely, without charges or evidence of wrongdoing, without access to family, friends or legal counsel, and with no opportunity to establish their innocence.”
A decision is due by the end of June.
