WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay grew more complicated Thursday after a federal judge ruled that at least some of the long-term prisoners at Bagram air base in Afghanistan were entitled to the same legal rights as Guantanamo detainees.
U.S. District Judge John Bates, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said the prisoners who were shipped to Bagram from outside Afghanistan were "virtually identical" in legal terms to those who were sent to Guantanamo.
The prisoners, therefore, have the right to challenge their detentions before a judge, Bates said.
He cited the Supreme Court's decision last year holding that the right to habeas corpus extended to Guantanamo prisoners and concluded there was no reason not to extend the same status to those held at the military prison in Afghanistan.
Lawyers for the Bush and Obama administrations argued that Afghanistan was different because it was in a "theater of war." Traditionally, the right to habeas corpus, or legal redress, does not apply on the battlefield or in combat areas.
But Bates said many of the prisoners at Bagram were not fighters captured in Afghanistan but were shipped there from other countries.
Thursday's decision -- if it stands -- could mean that hundreds more prisoners could seek hearings in court to challenge the government's basis for holding them.
About 240 prisoners remained at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba when President Obama took office. More than 600 are being held at Bagram, and some experts predict that number will rise if fighting escalates in Afghanistan.
Lawyers for Human Rights Watch in New York downplayed the ruling, saying it would have no effect on the large number of prisoners who are Afghan nationals.
In his first days in office, Obama said he would close the Guantanamo prison within a year. His lawyers also said they would no longer call the detainees "enemy combatants." However, the new administration has not spelled out what it will do with the foreign prisoners and how it will deal with newly captured suspected terrorists.
The prison at the Afghan base was being expanded during the last year of the Bush administration, leading some to predict that the Pentagon would resolve its Guantanamo problem by sending more inmates to Bagram. A new 40-acre prison is scheduled to open in September.
