This article was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court panel has ruled for the first time that prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are not entitled to due process, adopting a George W. Bush-era view of detainee rights that could affect the eventual trial of the men charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The 3-to-0 decision issued on Friday by Judge Neomi Rao at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the indefinite detention of Abdulsalam Al Hela, 52, who argued for release by saying that the evidence against him relied on anonymous hearsay and that he never joined or supported Al Qaeda or any other terrorist group. A U.S. District Court earlier found that Mr. Al Hela, a Yemeni who fought in the U.S.-backed jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, became “a trusted member of the international jihadi community for decades” by helping would-be terrorists with travel and false identities. But the appeals court judges were split on how and whether to address the broader question of whether Mr. Al Hela was entitled to the same due process protections as a U.S. citizen.

Source: International New York Times September 02, 2020 21:22 UTC