In what appeared to be the first ruling of its kind, a federal judge has barred the Bush administration from sending a Guantanamo detainee to his home country, where he claims he would face torture, according to an order unsealed on Tuesday in Washington.
The judge, Gladys Kessler of US District Court for the District of Columbia, issued an injunction prohibiting the planned transfer of the detainee to Tunisia, which has been criticized by US and international officials for human rights abuses.
Saying that the detainee, Mohammed Rahman, claimed that such a transfer would amount to a death sentence, Kessler said "it would be a profound miscarriage of justice" if she allowed the government to send him to Tunisia.
"At that point, the damage would have been done," she wrote, adding that Rahman faced a 20-year sentence after a conviction at a terrorism trial the Tunisian government held while he has been in detention at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Advocates for detainees and human rights groups said the ruling was an important development in the legal battle over Guantanamo. They said it could reshape what have been frequent legal conflicts over administration plans to send detainees to countries where they say they face torture or mistreatment.
"It is the only time a court has said the government does not have the unfettered right to do what they will with these people," said one of Rahman's lawyers, Joshua W. Denbeaux.
The ruling was the latest illustration of the hurdles the government faces in its effort to reduce the numbers of detainees at Guantanamo. State Department officials have said their efforts to repatriate many of the remaining 330 Guantanamo detainees have been hampered by resistance from some countries and by the government's own concerns about human rights issues.
In other cases, lawyers for detainees have tried to block transfers based on human rights concerns but have failed. Detainees' lawyers said Tuesday that they knew of no other case in which a judge had barred a transfer. Some lawyers said on Tuesday that they expected an appeal and that it was far from clear how appeals judges would view the ruling. Erik Ablin, a Justice Department spokesman, said the department had argued that the judge lacked the power to issue the injunction. The government, he said, is "reviewing the district court order and considering its options."
Cynthia Smith, a Defense Department spokeswoman, said officials worked to ensure that mistreatment of transferred detainees did not occur and investigated accusations of mistreatment. "Detainees are not repatriated to countries where it is more likely than not that they will be tortured," Smith said.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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