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US court blocks release of Uighurs from Guantanamo

The US government fears the earlier district court's decision could affect other cases before the federal courts, with some 250 detainees still held at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, many of whom are challenging their detentions. The fate of the Uighurs has sparked a feud between diplomats in the State Department and lawyers in the Justice Department, the New York Times reported last week. Photo courtesy AFP.
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Oct 21, 2008
A US federal appeals court has blocked the release of 17 Chinese Muslim Uighurs from the Guantanamo Bay prison until more legal hearings are held in November.

The men have been held at the US "war on terror" detention camp for more than six years without charges.

A federal judge on October 7 had ordered the men released and brought to the US capital, home to a significant Uighur community.

But in a 2-1 decision, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday agreed to a request from the US government to suspend the release and scheduled oral arguments in the case for November 24.

The panel "ordered that the motion for stay be granted and the district court's order directing that appellees be released into the United States be stayed pending further order of the court," the decision said.

The Uighurs were living in a self-contained camp in Afghanistan when the US-led coalition bombing campaign began in October 2001. They fled to the mountains, but were turned over to Pakistani authorities, who then handed them over to the United States.

The group has been held in limbo at Guantanamo -- despite being cleared for release by the US government -- because officials can not find a country willing to take them. The men cannot be returned to China because of fears they would be tortured there as political dissidents.

Lawyers for the Chinese Muslims demanded they be freed immediately on US soil.

Government lawyers rejected the demand, saying the Chinese Muslims pose a potential national security risk.

The potential risks, said the US Justice Department in court documents, were compounded by the fact "that petitioners were detained for six years by the country to which the district court has ordered them brought."

The administration also argued the release of the Chinese inmates could make it more difficult for the government's attempts to negotiate with third countries for the resettlement of detainees.

Only Albania has agreed to take Uighur detainees, welcoming a group of five in 2006.

The US government fears the earlier district court's decision could affect other cases before the federal courts, with some 250 detainees still held at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, many of whom are challenging their detentions.

The fate of the Uighurs has sparked a feud between diplomats in the State Department and lawyers in the Justice Department, the New York Times reported last week.

The Justice Department's allegation that the Chinese men represent a potential danger to the public had undermined efforts to persuade other governments to accept the Uighurs, the paper wrote, citing officials.

earlier related report
Pentagon drops charges against five Guantanamo detainees
The Pentagon announced Tuesday that it had dropped conspiracy and terrorism charges against five Guantanamo detainees, including a British resident, but said it could reinstate them "at a later time."

The legal charity representing Ethiopian-born British resident Binyam Mohammed said in a statement that military lawyers told them the US Department of Defence intends to re-file charges against their client following the November 4 US presidential election.

"Far from being a victory for Mr. Mohamed in his long-running struggle for justice, this is more of the same farce that is Guantanamo," said Clive Stafford-Smith, who has represented Mohamed since 2005.

"The military has informed us that they plan to charge him again within a month, after the (November 4) election," said Stafford-Smith, director of the legal charity Reprieve.

Jeffrey Gordon, a spokesman for the Department of Defense, said the Office of Military Commissions Convening Authority dismissed "without prejudice" the pending charges against five Guantanamo detainees.

Gordon named the detainees as Binyam Mohammed; Noor Uthman Mohammed of Sudan; Sufyiam Barhumi of Algeria; and Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi and Jabran Said Bin al Qahtani of Saudi Arabia.

"Dismissed without prejudice means that the government can raise the charges again at a later time," Gordon said, adding that chief prosecutor Army Colonel Lawrence Morris has appointed new lawyers who will review available material and recommend appropriate action in each case.

According to the legal charity Reprieve that represents Binyam Mohammed, the charges against their client were dropped because a US military prosecutor who resigned last month raised complaints about the military holding back evidence that could be favorable to him.

Also on Tuesday, a US federal appeals court blocked the release of 17 Chinese Muslim Uighurs from Guantanamo until more legal hearings are held in November.

The men, held at the US "war on terror" detention camp for more than six years without charges, were ordered by a federal judge to be released in the United States on October 7.

But in a 2-1 decision Tuesday, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed to a request from the US government to suspend the release and scheduled oral arguments in the case for November 24.

The panel "ordered that the motion for stay be granted and the district court's order directing that appellees be released into the United States be stayed pending further order of the court," the decision said.

The Uighurs were living in a self-contained camp in Afghanistan when the US-led coalition bombing campaign began in October 2001. They fled to the mountains, but were turned over to Pakistani authorities, who then handed them over to the United States.

Only a single trial has gone to completion in Guantanamo, that of Salim Hamdan of Yemen, a former driver for Osama bin Laden.

Hamdan's trial ended badly for government prosecutors who failed to sway a military jury, raising fresh questions about the legal front in the US "war on terror."

A jury of six military officers in August cleared the Yemeni of the most serious charge of conspiracy and imposed a remarkably light sentence of five and a half years, giving him just five more months of prison time, taking into account time served.

But his fate is uncertain, since the Pentagon said he would continue to be held at Guantanamo Bay as an enemy combatant after he serves out his sentence.

"He will serve out the rest of his sentence," Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said at the time.

"At that time he will still be considered an enemy combatant. But he will be eligible for review by an Administrative Review Board," said Whitman.

The trial of Yemeni Ali Hamza Ahmad al-Bahlul is scheduled for Monday and that of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen arrested at age 15, for mid-November.

In 2007, Australian David Hicks pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorism and agreed to serve the remainder of a nine-month sentence on home soil. He was released on December 29, 2007.

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'Distinct' risk if Uighurs released on US soil: Bush administration
Washington (AFP) Oct 17, 2008
The Bush administration believes the 17 Chinese Muslim Uighurs detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp should not be released into the United States because they pose a "risk distinct to this nation," according to court documents obtained by AFP on Friday.







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