Federal Court Refuses To Throw Out Challenge To Guantanamo Prisoner's Nine Year Detention

A
federal appellate court today sent a lawsuit challenging the unlawful
detention of Guantanamo prisoner Mohamedou Ould Salahi back to district
court for further review. In March, the district court had ordered
Salahi released from Guantanamo because the government could not prove
that he was part of Al Qaeda when he was captured in 2001. The
government appealed that ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit, which today ruled that the government can
continue to hold Salahi in military detention while the case returns to
the lower court for further factual findings.

The American Civil Liberties Union and attorneys from the law firms of
Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Ives & Duncan P.A. and Linda Moreno
brought the petition for habeas corpus on behalf of Salahi. Salahi, who
never took part in any hostilities or attacks against the U.S., was
captured at his home in Mauritania far from any battlefield, tortured
and abused by the U.S. government and has now been in U.S. custody for
approximately nine years.

In its ruling, the appellate court rejected the government's radical
argument that the oath Salahi swore to Al Qaeda in 1991 - when it was
allied with the United States in opposing the communist government of
Afghanistan - was sufficient proof that he was still connected to the
group when he was captured in Mauritania in 2001. The court also
acknowledged that Al Qaeda was a different group in 1991 than it was in
2001, and that allegiance to the earlier formation of the group could
not be equated with allegiance to the group in later years.

The following can be attributed to Theresa Duncan of the law firm Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Ives & Duncan P.A.:

"While we are disappointed that Mr. Salahi will remain imprisoned after
nearly a decade of unlawful military detention, we're confident the
district court will once again find no legal or factual basis to
continue holding him. The appeals court correctly recognized that it is
up to the government to prove that Mr. Salahi can be held indefinitely -
which it has failed do in the nine years it has kept him imprisoned.
The district court should order Mr. Salahi's release from Guantanamo -
hopefully, this will be the beginning of the end to his long nightmare."


The following can be attributed to Jonathan Hafetz, cooperating attorney with the ACLU:

"After nine years in unlawful custody, it is well past time for Mr.
Salahi to go home. The failure of the courts to order his release would
undermine their role as a check against lawless detention and a
guarantor of individual rights."