Appeals court rejects detainees' suit

April 25, 2009|Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court yesterday for a second time rejected a lawsuit by Guantanamo Bay detainees who say they were tortured and denied religious rights.

Four British men say they were beaten, shackled in painful stress positions, and threatened by dogs during their time at the US naval base in Cuba. They also say they were harassed while practicing their religion, including shaving their beards, banning or interrupting their prayers, denying them copies of the Koran and prayer mats, and throwing a copy of the Koran in a toilet.

The defendants in the case included top Bush administration military officials such as former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld.

The Court of Appeals in Washington ruled against the detainees early last year, saying because the men were foreigners held outside the United States, they do not fall within the definition of a "person" protected by the act. But later in the year, the Supreme Court ruled that Guantanamo detainees have some rights under the Constitution and instructed the appeals court to reconsider the lawsuit in light of their decision.

Yesterday, the appeals court reached the same conclusion, noting that the four men who filed the suit - Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed, and Jamal Al-Harith - were released in 2004, more than four years before the Supreme Court ruling.

The Obama administration supported the case's dismissal, arguing that holding military officials liable for their treatment of prisoners could cause them to make future decisions based on fear of litigation rather than appropriate military policy.