Court Turns Down Case of Gitmo Detainee Who Wants to Stay
The U.S. Supreme Court refused today to accept a case filed by a Guantanamo detainee who fears he will be tortured if he is released to his home country of Algeria.
Petitioner Ahmed Belbacha had sought to bypass the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit with a Supreme Court appeal, SCOTUSblog reports. A federal judge had dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction.
Belbacha was an accountant who says he left his country after being recalled for government military service, the Associated Press reports. He was picked up in Pakistan and transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
“His fear is such that he would prefer to endure the oppressive environment of Guantanamo until an asylum state can be found,” his lawyers wrote in their petition to the court.
