U.S. Judge Lets Guantanamo Inmates Sue in Court

[Neil D]

[:"blue"] It's about time they can be processed. They are probably all brainwashed now.They will go back to the Telban and self destruct.... [/]

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. judge ruled that a group of suspected terrorists held at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, can challenge their detention in federal court.

U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green rejected a request by the Bush administration to throw out lawsuits by 54 detainees protesting their imprisonment. Green said tribunals set up by the Pentagon to test whether the prisoners are ``enemy combatants'' violate the U.S. Constitution and in some cases the Geneva Conventions, which govern treatment of prisoners of war.

``It would be far easier for the government to prosecute the war on terrorism if it could imprison all suspected `enemy combatants' at Guantanamo Bay without having to acknowledge and respect any constitutional rights of detainees,'' Green wrote. ``That, however, is not the relevant legal test.''

Green's decision conflicts with a Jan. 19 ruling by another Washington federal judge, Richard Leon, who threw out seven suspected terrorists' requests for court review of their detention. Saying he found ``no viable legal theory exists by which'' a court could order the detainees' release, Leon granted the government's request to throw out the lawsuits.

About 550 inmates are being held at Guantanamo Bay. Green was brought out of retirement to consider the legal questions raised by multiple suits filed in federal court in Washington on behalf of Guantanamo detainees following last year's Supreme Court ruling that the prisoners could seek court review of their imprisonment.

Indefinite Detention

Leon, an appointee of President George W. Bush, was the only federal judge in Washington to keep the cases assigned to him and to issue his own ruling on the legal issues Green was assigned to consider.

During a Dec. 1 hearing on the case, Green challenged the Bush administration to justify the indefinite detention of people considered ``enemy combatants.''

The government argued that court review of the detainees' cases was unnecessary because military tribunals met the high court's demand for legal protection.