 On Sept. 15, DC District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly denied the petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by a Kuwaiti detainee held at Guantanamo named Fayiz al Kandari. The ruling remained classified until late September, when it was released online. Al Kandari and his attorney have repeatedly claimed that he was a mere charity worker in Afghanistan in 2001. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly disagreed, finding that al Kandari's story was "implausible" and "not credible."
| Great, fine, but why is a federal judge involved in the first place? Kandari was captured in a war zone and jugged at a military prison camp. He should not be subject to review by a civilian court. |
In particular, Judge Kollar-Kotelly found that al Kandari was overly evasive for a man who claimed to be innocent. Both during his interrogations at Guantanamo, and even in his declaration to the court, al Kandari refused to explain what he was up to during a "missing" two-month period in Afghanistan. This in and of itself was not enough to reject al Kandari's petition, the judge determined, as detainees have "no burden to prove" their innocence in habeas proceedings.
| But they have every burden to explain who they are and why they're in a war zone if they're in front of a military tribunal, which is where Kandari should be. |
Judge Kollar-Kotelly found, however, that al Kandari's "repeated unwillingness to provide details as to his time in Afghanistan is nonetheless inconsistent with, and undermines the credibility of, his claim that he was an innocent charity worker who became inadvertently trapped in Afghanistan in the wake of September 11, 2001." |