In yet another ‘victory’ for President Bush, the US supreme court on Monday rejected an appeal by by suspected terrorists challenging their imprisonment at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The appeals from the detainees come months before several of the mostly Muslim men are expected to begin facing criminal prosecution before U.S. military commissions.
The prisoners have thus been denied the right to contest their imprisonment and the rules set up to try them as war criminals. The justices ruled 6-3 to deny appeals from two groups of prisoners. The official comment of the White House read
on first glance, we’re very pleased with the decision
Rightly pointed out by Washington lawyer Tom Wilner, who has represented Guantanamo detainees since May 2002, the ruling is
a perfect example of ‘justice delayed is justice denied.’ All these people ever wanted was a fair hearing
About 400 detainees are being held at the facility, including admitted September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 13 other suspected top al Qaeda members. Military trials have already begun for a few of these.
However, all does not seem to be lost. Analysts believe that the ruling may be only a temporary set back for the plaintiffs. In a brief order written by Justices John Paul Stevens and Anthony Kennedy, the court suggested the detainees could appeal once their tribunals or preliminary hearings have been completed. The court also said its decision to stay out of the fight for now does not mean it is rejecting the claims on their merits, just that the timing was not right for the court’s involvement now.
Despite the obvious importance of the issues raised in these cases, we are persuaded that traditional rules governing our decision of constitutional questions ... and our practice of requiring the exhaustion of available remedies as a precondition to accepting jurisdiction over applications for the writ of habeas corpus ... make it appropriate to deny these petitions at this time
Simultaneously, there have been ongoing talks about shutting down the controversial prison altogether. One does not expect the prison to shut down while Bush remains in power. Where the prisoners would be transferred if and when it is shut down also remains sketchy. For now, the current ruling is yet another reminder that the US seems to omnipotent under its ‘war on terror’ garb, where the detainees are even denied the basic right of a free and fair trial.
Via: CNN
