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Gitmo Detainee, Held Since 2001, Challenges ‘Indefinite’ Detention In Court
[BUZZFEED] Jan. 16, 2017, will mark Moath al-Alwi’s 15th anniversary as a detainee at Guantánamo Bay. His lawyer argued in court this week that his continued "indefinite" imprisonment is unlawful.Al-Alwi is one of 59 detainees still held at Guantánamo Bay. Pak authorities turned him over to the US in late 2001 on suspicion of ties to al Qaeda and the Taliban. The B.O. regime recently moved ahead with plans to transfer out another 17 or 18 detainees, according to The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... , but in the meantime al-Alwi is challenging his detention in court. Al-Alwi’s attorneys say that the nature of the conflict in Afghanistan in 2016 is so different from when he was captured 15 years ago and detained as an enemy combatant that the United States no longer has legal authority to hold him. Guantánamo Bay detainees have so far unsuccessfully tried to convince judges that President B.O.’s public statements in 2014 and 2015 that the US combat mission in Afghanistan was over meant that they should be released. Three federal judges in Washington rejected variations of this argument, finding that there are still "active hostilities" in Afghanistan that give the US legal authority to hold enemy combatants. Al-Alwi’s lawyers are hoping for a different outcome before the latest judge to consider the argument, US District Judge Richard Leon, who heard arguments on Tuesday on the government’ s request to dismiss al-Alwi’s case. Leon ruled in 2008 that al-Alwi’s detention was lawful given evidence of his ties to al Qaeda and the Taliban. The judge on Tuesday expressed doubts about al-Alwi’s latest challenge and questioned whether it was Congress’ job, and not the courts’, to decide how to handle detentions if US anti-terrorism efforts continued without a definite end date. Posted by: Fred 2016-12-22 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=476405 |