10-11-2004, 05:19 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Long Ashton, Bristol
Posts: 10,083
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Military tribunals at Guantanamo ruled illegal by US judge
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=581264
Quote:
Relatives of the four Britons held at Guantanamo Bay have demanded that Tony Blair seeks their release when he meets George Bush tomorrow after a US judge found the military tribunals being used to try the prisoners were illegal.
On Monday evening, US District Judge James Robertson in Washington ruled that the tribunals should not continue in their present form and that many of the 550 prisoners at the camp were probably prisoners-of-war, eligible for rights under the Geneva Conventions. The Bush administration has repeatedly refused to grant the prisoners such rights.
The decision halted the tribunal of the Yemeni Salim Ahmed Hamdan, captured in Afghanistan in 2001 where he had apparently been working as Osama bin Laden's driver. He denies being in al-Qa'ida. Judge Robertson also ruled that Salim should be allowed to confront evidence and witnesses against him, and that he was not put before a competent tribunal to evaluate whether he was entitled to prisoner-of-war status.
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