Gulf | Qatar
Lawyers raise case of only 'enemy combatant' jailed in the US
The American Civil Liberties Union asked the US Supreme Court on Friday to review whether the Bush administration has the authority to capture and detain suspected enemy combatants in this country indefinitely without charges.
- Agencies
- Published: 10:42 September 21, 2008
- Image Credit: AP
- Ali Al Merri, is the only 'enemy combatant' jailed in the US.
Colombia: The American Civil Liberties Union asked the US Supreme Court on Friday to review whether the Bush administration has the authority to capture and detain suspected enemy combatants in this country indefinitely without charges.
The petition was filed on behalf of Ali Al Marri, a Qatar native and the only enemy combatant seized and held on US soil.
The ACLU asked the Supreme Court to review a July decision in which the closely divided 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that the Bush administration has the authority to seize and detain anyone suspected of being an Al Qaida member. The court also ruled, however, that such suspects must have an adequate opportunity to challenge their military detention.
"This case tests America's commitment to its most cherished constitutional principle: the right not to be imprisoned by the executive without charge or trial," said Jonathan Hafetz, one of Al Marri's attorneys.
Al-Marri has been held in solitary confinement in a Charleston, S.C., Navy brig since June 2003. The native of Qatar was arrested in December 2001 at his home in Peoria, Ill., where he moved with his wife and five children a day before the 9/11 terrorist attacks to study for a master's degree at Bradley University.
The government says federal agents found evidence that Al Marri, who was charged with credit card fraud, had links to Al Qaida terrorists and was a national security threat. Authorities shifted his case from the criminal system and moved him to indefinite military detention.
"Mr. Al-Marri trained with Al Qaida forces in Afghanistan, had direct contact with the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks ... and was dispatched by Al Qaida leaders to the United States on the eve of 9/11 to commit or facilitate warlike acts," said Erik Ablin, a spokesman for the Justice Department.
In their petition, attorneys for Al Marri and the ACLU argue that the lower court made four errors in its decision, including ignoring Congress' intent that domestic terror suspects can't be held indefinitely without charges.
The lower court split 5-4, with the majority ruling that Al Marri had been denied due process and should be allowed to challenge whether he was properly designated an enemy combatant.
He said his agency would respond to the ACLU petition in the coming weeks.
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