Circuit Court bars detainee transfer
on Jul 30, 2007 at 5:07 pm
The D.C. Circuit Court on Monday afternoon temporarily blocked the federal government from transferring a Guantanamo Bay detainee to his home country, Algeria. The order involved Ahmed Belbacha, who has contended in court papers that he fears he will face torture or other abuse from “radical Islamist groups” if returned to Algeria, because he previously served in the Algerian military and worked for a government-owned company there.
The Circuit Court stressed that it was not deciding the transfer issue, but was barring his removal “to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the merits of the motion to stay.” Its action, it added, “should not be considered in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion.” It ordered the government to file a reply by 4 p.m. Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer had refused to prevent the transfer on Friday, concluding that her court had lost jurisdiction over such cases under the court-stripping provisions of the Military Commissions Act of 2006. She also relied upon the Circuit Court’s Feb. 20 ruling upholding those provisions — a ruling that the Supreme Court has agreed to review at its next Term.
