US JUDGE QUESTIONS GUANTANAMO DETENTION

Washington, 22 Jumadil Akhir 1435/22 April 2014 (MINA) – A US Supreme Court judge, Stephen Breyer raised questions Monday about the government’s authority to detain “terrorism suspects” in US-run Guantanamo prison.

The Progressive Justice issued a statement in which he outlined several areas that the court has yet to address concerning the government’s detention authority, Press TV reported as quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

The court has not made any decision on whether the US military could detain someone, who was not “engaged in an armed conflict against the United States’ in Afghanistan prior to his capture,” even if that person was a member of al-Qaeda or the Taliban, Breyer stated.

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Even if such detention was allowed, he said, the court also had not decided whether the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), passed in September 2001 following the 9/11 attacks, or the Constitution “limits the duration of detention.”

The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force allows the US president to detain so-called enemy combatants.

The Supreme Court approved in 2004 that the AUMF was constitutional and permitted the president to hold “enemy combatants” if the person “was part of or supporting forces hostile to the United States or coalition partners in Afghanistan and who engaged in an armed conflict against the United States there.”

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But Breyer’s statement put into question such authority offering a glimmer of hope to those prisoners who have been held for years.

Over 150 men are being held in the Guantanamo detention center in Cuba. Most of the detainees have not been charged or tried yet.(T/P04/P03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)