Judge orders Guantanamo Uighurs be allowed into US

8 October 2008, 12:48PM

A US flag flying over Guantanamo Bay's Camp Delta.
© US Department of Defense

In a triumph for the rule of a law, a federal judge has ordered the US to immediately free 17 Chinese Uighurs who have been held in Guantanamo Bay for almost seven years, and allow them into the US.

And the response from the US administration, they plan on appealing against the decision and do not want the Uighurs to be settled in the US. Sabin Willett a lawyer for the men, gave Radio Australia his opinion on why the US Government may be taking this approach.

On 8 October a US Appeals Court blocked the release into the USA of the 17 Uighur detainees. The reason given, so that the Court has sufficient opportunity to consider the Government's not-yet filed appeal. One the appeal is lodged, the detainees' lawyers must then file their response by 14 October, and any government reply to that must be filed with the Court by the afternoon of 16 October.

The US recently declared the Muslim Uighurs, who were taken into custody in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001, were no longer "enemy combatants".

Amnesty International US’s executive director, Larry Cox, says the decision is a huge victory for the rule of law and fundamental liberties.

Held without charge or trial

" "However, this decision will mean little to the detainees if it is ignored, as other court opinions have been in practice by the Bush administration. These detainees have been held more than five years without charge or trial. This US court asserted that there are limits to executive power and ultimately – the US Constitution means something.

" "How many times does the Bush administration need to be told that detainees are entitled to essential rights? All the remaining detainees in Guantanamo Bay must be either charged and tried or released immediately …

"… "When the presiding judge, Judge Ricardo Urbina, said 'the separation of powers doesn't trump the right to liberty,' he spoke for millions of Americans." ..."

We have also put out a public statement about the case.

Government to appeal

It was the first time a court had ordered that "war on terror" prisoners held at the US detention centre should be released onto US soil. The Bush Government swiftly said it planned to appeal the decision, reports AFP.

" …" ... we are filing an emergency motion for stay pending appeal tonight with the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit," the Department said ...

" "The government does not believe that it is appropriate to have these foreign nationals removed from government custody and released into the United States." …"

Risk of torture in China

AP reports the Uighurs have been cleared for release from Guantanamo since 2004 and normally they would be sent home.

" But the Uighurs cannot be sent back to China where they are considered terrorists and could be tortured, and the Bush administration says no country is willing to accept them. Albania accepted five Uighur detainees in 2006 but has since balked on taking others due partly to fears of repercussions with China …"

The Chinese Government this week demanded that the Uighurs be repatriated to China.

Isolation and cruelty

The judge has ordered the group be released in Washington D.C. by Friday, and called a hearing next week to decide where they should be permanently settled. Media are reporting Uighur community members in the Washington area have said they will sponsor and help care for men in the meantime.

AFP reports Sabin Willet, a lawyer for the detainees, said in a court motion in January that the Uighurs were being held in brutal solitary confinement, which saw them spending at least 22 hours a day alone in all-metal cells with no natural light or air.

" The government had imposed on the men "a regimen of isolation and cruelty unheard of in penal or military law, and unknown to civilized people," …"

Remedy a long time coming

Just before this week's hearing Amnesty International released a document, Justice years overdue federal court hearing for Uighur detainees in Guantanamo, which has more information on the case.

We believe that remedy for the Uighur detainees – who have been arbitrarily detained in violation of international human rights law – is long overdue.

The Huffington Post reports that a federal judge will later this month hold hearings on other Guantanamo prisoners challenging their detention as so-called enemy combatants.

Around 20 per cent of about 250 detainees who remain in Guantanamo fear torture or persecution if they return to their home countries, says the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights. Their concerns raise similar questions as to where they should go if other countries refuse to take them. The US has long maintained they should stay at Guantanamo, says the article.

Close Guantanamo Bay

Amnesty International is calling for Guantanamo to be shut down.

Hundreds of people are still being held in the US detention centre – almost all of them without charge, without access to lawyers, and with little hope of a fair trial.

They are in legal limbo, denied their rights under international law. They should be charged with recognisable criminal offences and given fair trials, or they should be released.

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After long-term imprisonment for speaking publicly about human rights issues, Wei Jingsheng was finally released with help from Amnesty International.

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