- Detainees being held by the US military at Guantanamo
Bay in Cuba should have access to lawyers and the US court system, a federal
appeals court has ruled. The court said their detention was contrary to
US ideals.
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- It did not accept that the US Government had "unchecked
authority".
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- The ruling relates to the case of a Libyan national captured
in Afghanistan and currently being held at Guantanamo.
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- About 660 people are currently being held as "enemy
combatants" at the base.
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- "Even in times of national emergency... it is the
obligation of the judicial branch to ensure the preservation of our constitutional
values and to prevent the executive branch from running roughshod over
the rights of citizens and aliens alike," said the ruling by the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals.
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- It added it could not accept the position that anyone
under the jurisdiction and control of the US could be held without "recourse
of any kind to any judicial forum, or even access to counsel, regardless
of the length or manner of their confinement".
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- The decision comes shortly after another US federal appeals
court ruled that US authorities did not have the power to detain an American
citizen seized on US soil as an "enemy combatant".
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- That ruling, by the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals,
related to the case of so-called "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla.
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- © BBC MMIII
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3332633.stm
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