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Guantanamo prisoners advocates hail supreme court { November 10 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=401575§ion=newshttp://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=401575§ion=news
Guantanamo prisoners' advocates hail Supreme Court
Mon 10 November, 2003 19:10
By Peter Graff
LONDON (Reuters) - Advocates for Guantanamo Bay detainees have hailed the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to examine the prisoners' cases for the first time, but say they will not be satisfied until the detainees win proper trials.
The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to review a ruling that the detainees held at a U.S. naval base in Cuba are outside the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. The court will review cases brought by two British nationals, two Australians and 12 Kuwaitis, but a decision would most likely affect all the detainees.
The roughly 660 prisoners, captured mostly during the war in Afghanistan but also in Pakistan, Africa and other parts of the world as "enemy combatants" since the September 11 attacks, have been held without charge and without lawyers.
Louise Christian, who represents the mother of British Guantanamo Bay detainee Feroz Abassi, told Reuters she was "pleased but cautious" about the Supreme Court decision.
"Obviously it would have been absolutely devastating if the Supreme Court had flown in the face of international legal opinion and said this isn't worth considering," she said.
But she said her client would not be satisfied as long as her son remained imprisoned with no charge and no access to a legal representative. The Supreme Court will not examine the cases until next year, with a decision due by the end of June.
"I don't think it's going to mean very much to her because the only thing that means very much to her is for Feroz to be given access to a lawyer and a proper court, and it doesn't look as if that is going to be happening anytime soon," she said.
In London, the director of Fair Trials Abroad, a London-based legal pressure group that has taken on the cases of 20 Europeans among the Guantanamo prisoners, told Reuters when given the news: "Excellent. That is at least a start.
"I wish I could be optimistic but given the composition of the Supreme Court and various 'political' cases that have gone before it, there is a Republican majority and what appears to be a clear case may be clouded by this."
A spokesman for Amnesty International said: "The executive's treatment of the detainees is in our view a human rights scandal that violates international law and damages US claims to be a country that upholds the rule of law.
"We hope the Supreme Court will bring an end to the black hole that is Camp Delta and ensure justice for them and their families."
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