AP. 21 January 2002. Court Petition Challenges U.S. Detention of Terrorist Suspects; Judge Agrees to Set Hearing.
LOS ANGELES -- A federal judge has agreed to consider a petition backed by former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and other civil rights advocates that challenges the detention of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba. U.S. District Court Judge A. Howard Matz decided to consider the petition Sunday night and scheduled a Tuesday morning hearing on the matter. The petition, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, is the first court challenge of the detention of al-Qaida suspects. The petition for a writ of habeas corpus demands that the U.S. government bring the suspects before a court and define the charges against them. The judge will have to decide whether a U.S. District Court, which typically is restricted to a geographical area, has jurisdiction over prisoners held in Cuban territory leased to the U.S. government. He also will have to determine if the petitioners, who are all from Los Angeles, have legal standing to pursue the case. The petition was prepared on behalf of about 110 al-Qaida suspects who were taken into custody in Afghanistan and transferred to the base in Cuba. Thirty-four more detainees arrived at the base from Afghanistan on Sunday, pushing the total to 144. The petition alleges that the detainees are being held in violation of the Geneva Convention and the U.S. Constitution. It seeks due-process guarantees and seeks to block any transfer of the detainees from the base. A coalition of clergy, professors and civil rights attorneys had the petition filed by attorney Stephen Yagman, a civil rights attorney. The coalition includes Clark, who has pursued a variety of causes in recent years, including helping onetime Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic fight war-crimes charges. "These individuals were brought out of their country in shackles, drugged, gagged and blindfolded, and are being held in open-air cages in Cuba," said coalition member Erwin Chemerinsky, a law professor at the University of Southern California. "Someone should be asserting their rights under international law." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
