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Friday, April 19, 2024 | Back issues
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Breyer Wavers as High Court Reject Case From Guantanamo

The Supreme Court refused a challenge Monday from a 17-year Guantanamo Bay detainee, but Justice Stephen Breyer said it will soon be time to for the court to resolve the continued use of the prison camp for a conflict that has no end in sight.

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court refused a challenge Monday from a 17-year Guantanamo Bay detainee, but Justice Stephen Breyer said it will soon be time to for the court to resolve the continued use of the prison camp for a conflict that has no end in sight.

Suspected of having collaborated with al-Qaida, the Yemen-born Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi has been held without charges since his December 2001 capture in Pakistan.

Though the D.C. Circuit concluded that the government may continue to detain al-Alwi so long as “armed hostilities between United States forces and [the Taliban and al-Qaeda] persist,” Breyer noted Monday that the government has not offered any time table for the end of the conflict.

“As a consequence, al-Alwi faces the real prospect that he will spend the rest of his life in detention based on his status as an enemy combatant a generation ago, even though today’s conflict may differ substantially,” Breyer wrote.

The court turned away al-Alwi case’s without comment, but Breyer emphasized in a statement that he would be willing to review an “appropriate case” about whether Congress has properly authorized the continued detention of such prisoners.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh did not participate in the rejection of al-Alwi’s case.

This story is developing…

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Categories / Appeals, Civil Rights, Government, International

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