A US federal judge ruled that military tribunals for international terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay Naval base are unconstitutional, leaving in doubt the fate of hundreds of detainees at the US-run detention center in Cuba.After considering court appeals filed by 11 "enemy combatants" held at the facility, "the court concludes that the petitioners have stated valid claims under the Fifth Amendment to the United State Constitution," Judge Joyce Hens Green wrote in her ruling, adding that the detentions "violate the petitioners rights to due process of law."
The Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution states that no one under US jurisdiction can be "be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
The court also found that some of the detainees, are in fact, covered by the Geneva Conventions.
"The court holds that at least some of the petitioners have stated valid claims under the third Geneva Convention," according to a declassifed version of the federal ruling which was posted Monday on the court's website.
Green ruled that US officials withheld from detainees access to evidence used against them, and that the US government has tended to rely on statements obtained by torture. She also determined that the government's definition of "enemy combatant" was vague and overly broad.
Suspects captured in the US-led war on terrorism, most of whom were taken prisoner in Afghanistan after US-led forces toppled the Taliban regime, or Pakistan, are being held as illegal combatants without Geneva Convention protections.
Detainees at Guantanamo were taken into custody beginning in early 2002, with some imprisoned now for nearly three years, while others were captured as recently as September of last year.
"Although many of these individuals may never have been close to an actual battlefield and may never have raised conventional arms against the United States or its allies, the military nonetheless has deemed them detainable as 'enemy combatants' based on conclusions that they have ties to the Al-Qaeda terror network or other terrorist organizations," the court document said.
The US government has maintained that it is allowed to detain suspects it designates to be enemy combatants until the "war on terror" ends, which is to say indefinitely. If prosecuted and convicted, enemy combatants would receive fixed terms of incarceration.
In a statement after the ruling, attorneys for the detainees called Monday's court decision a "smashing defeat for the Bush administration" and "a momentous victory for the rule of law, for human rights, and for our democracy."
"Now it's time for this administration to act. We're calling on the White House to cease its tactics," the attorneys said.