Guantanamo/Detainees
Plan Would Give Gitmo Detainees More Legal Rights
Posted Nov 5, 2007, 07:52 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The Bush administration is considering moving many terrorism detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the United States and granting them more legal rights.
The detainees would have the right to a lawyer and a hearing before a federal judge on a specially created court, under one option being debated, the New York Times reports. Currently, military officers hold such status hearings and inmates appear without counsel.
Such a move could undermine a pending U.S. Supreme Court case, Boumediene v. Bush, in which the detainees seek a right to habeas corpus so they can challenge their detentions in federal courts.
The options are being weighed as officials consider closing the Guantanamo facility. Officials would try about 80 of the detainees and continue to hold indefinitely about 120 others. Another 130 or so men would be sent back to their home countries.
In recent days, 11 more Guantanamo detainees have been released to their home countries, the Washington Post reports. Eight men were sent to Afghanistan and three to Jordan.
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