Washington – Bush administration lawyers argued Wednesday that a new law forces the dismissal of more than 200 lawsuits filed in federal courts on behalf of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
They urged a federal appellate court to instead adopt a far more limited process that still would give the prisoners access to judicial review.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will decide whether the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 retroactively stripped the court of jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus cases challenging detentions at the military prison in Cuba.
Lawyers representing the prisoners argued that the new law does not apply to pending cases, while the government has maintained that all cases essentially should be wiped away.
The Detainee Treatment Act was designed to pull what some senators believe are frivolous cases out of U.S. courts and instead grant detainees two other options: access to the federal appeals court to challenge the military determination that they are “enemy combatants,” and the right to appeal verdicts reached in future military trials.
Currently, the military is holding 10 detainees at Guantanamo Bay who have been cleared for release, and federal courts have been powerless to order them freed. About 490 detainees are at Guantanamo Bay.
Also Wednesday, Pentagon officials said they are considering issuing a written instruction to military commissions at Guantanamo Bay that would formally ban the use of evidence obtained from detainees by torture in upcoming trials.
