Federal judge orders release of five Guantanamo prisoners
Judge Richard Leon rules that the Bush administration failed to show the men were plotting with Al Qaeda. The Algerian natives were arrested in 2001.
Reporting from Washington, D.C. — A federal judge for the first time ruled today that five of the long-held prisoners at the U.S. military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, must be released because the Bush administration has not shown that the prisoners were involved in hostilities against the United States.
The five men are natives of Algeria and citizens of Bosnia. They were arrested there in 2001 and were alleged to be plotting with the Al Qaeda terrorist organization. When the Bosnia courts ordered the men freed, U.S. authorities took them into custody and sent them to Guantanamo.
The prisoners include Lakhdar Boumediene, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that led to a Supreme Court ruling in June that said the Guantanamo detainees were entitled to challenge their detention before judges.
Acting on that ruling, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon heard evidence from both sides and announced that Boumediene and four of his fellow prisoners should go free. The judge said a sixth Algerian prisoner could continue to be held.
Today's ruling, however, is not likely to lead to a quick release.
The Justice Department can appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals here. It could be weeks before the appeals court considers the matter, and its judges have generally endorsed the Bush administration's policies.
Nonetheless, civil libertarians said today's decision shows that many men have been wrongly held at Guantanamo based on flimsy evidence.
Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said the government could not "muster the barest evidence in support of its arbitrary detention. We must note that justice here, however, comes seven years too late."
The Supreme Court had ordered judges to give prompt hearings to the Guantanamo detainees and decide whether there was sufficient evidence to hold them as "enemy combatants."
Its decision in Boumediene vs. Bush overturned earlier rulings by Judge Leon and by the U.S. Appeals Court holding that the Guantanamo detainees had no right to habeas corpus.
Last month, another federal judge here ruled that 17 Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo should be released, but in that case, the administration agreed the men no longer posed a threat.
However, their release has foundered on the question of where they can go. The 17 Chinese Muslims could not be returned to China because they faced persecution there, and the Bush administration objects to releasing them in the United States.
The appeals court is due to consider their fate in a hearing set for next week.
Savage is a writer in our Washington Bureau.
david.savage@latimes.com
