The Hindu : U.S. Supreme Court to hear prisoners' plea

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 12, 2003

International

International

U.S. Supreme Court to hear prisoners' plea

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON NOV. 11 . In a significant move, the U.S. Supreme Court has said that it will hear an appeal asking if foreigners held at the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba have recourse to the American court system.

The Supreme Court will hear the petition next year and a ruling is expected around July. This is the first time that the nation's highest court has agreed to hear a case related to the war on terrorism. The U.S. is said to be holding an estimated 650 persons at the Guantanamo Bay base with the Bush administration contending that since the men were picked up overseas on suspicion of terrorism and are being kept in a foreign land, they could be detained indefinitely and without charges or trials.

The detained men are mostly Muslims and have no access to the world outside. The expectation is that eventually, some of these detainees could be tried before tribunals; but the Republican administration has been tight-lipped about this as well. Some of the prisoners have already been shipped back to their country.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has said that the mental condition of a large number of the detainees was deteriorating.

Lawyers for those detained and civil rights activists have been asking for access to the court system, arguing among other things, that the U. S. "has created a prison on Guantanamo Bay that operates entirely outside the law."

But the Bush administration sees this differently.

"We believe that the law is on our side" argued the President's National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, stressing that the detainees "are being treated consistently with international law and we believe that we're right in this."

The case before the Supreme Court has to do with four British and Australian detenus, who were seized in Pakistan.

The lawyers for the four are saying that their clients have nothing to do with the Al-Qaeda, other terror outfits or the events of 9/11.

The court will also hear the challenge of 12 Kuwaiti men who were taken into custody in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Their lawyers maintain that they are not terrorists and have not participated in any hostile act against the U.S.

The apex court has had several opportunities to hear terror-related cases in the recent past; but had declined to do so in every one of them.

By deciding to hear the first batch of appeal, the court, in its ruling next year, could set the stage for more such cases to be brought to its attention.

The Bush administration, through the Solicitor General, has told the court that the Guantanamo Bay base detentions served "vital objectives of preventing combatants from continuing to aid our enemies and gathering intelligence to further the overall war effort".

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