Prosecutors are preparing to charge and transfer to the US court system the last “enemy combatant” held in the country, media said on Thursday, in one of US President Barack Obama’s sharpest breaks with the Bush administration.
Federal prosecutors were preparing to charge Ali al-Marri with providing support to al-Qaeda, the Washington Post said citing sources familiar with the case.
The action would be a significant departure from the administration of former US president George W. Bush, which argued that Marri should be tried before a special military tribunal and not be allowed to use US courts to contest his legal status.
A citizen of Qatar, Marri and his family arrived legally in the US one day before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
He was arrested three months later while attending a university in Peoria, Illinois, and has been held without charge for the past five and a half years as an “enemy combatant” in a military brig in South Carolina.
Bush’s administration had argued that unlawful enemy combatants captured in the “war on terror” did not have the same rights as US criminals or prisoners of war, arguing the detainees were not associated with conventional armies.
But Obama ordered a review of the Marri case shortly after taking office, at the same time that he ordered the closure within a year of the “war on terror” prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where some 240 suspects, also labeled enemy combatants, are being held.
The Obama administration could announce the Marri charges in federal court by the end of the week, the Post reported.
The fundamental shift could signify that the government is inching towards processing some of the prisoners being held indefinitely at Guantanamo in the US court system.
“If true, the decision to charge Marri is an important step in restoring the rule of law and is what should have happened seven years ago when he was first arrested,” Jonathan Hafetz, one of Marri’s lawyers, said in a statement.
Hafetz nevertheless insisted that this potentially crucial legal step not block his client’s case coming up before the US Supreme Court in April, a case which would challenge Bush’s position that the president has authority to hold indefinitely and without charge a person declared an enemy combatant.
“It is vital that the Supreme Court case go forward because it must be made clear once and for all that indefinite military detention of persons arrested in the US is illegal and that this will never happen again,” the lawyer said.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
China executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” of telecom scam operations, state media reported yesterday, as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry. Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Myanmar. Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world. Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work. In the past few years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation
RSS