Detention of Al Qaeda Suspects Challenged

A federal judge in Los Angeles agreed Sunday night to consider a petition from civil rights advocates demanding that the U.S. government bring terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Naval Base before a court and define the charges against them.

U.S. District Court Judge A. Howard Matz scheduled a hearing for Tuesday morning.

The unusual petition, filed in a venue far removed from the Cuban base, is the first court challenge to the Bush administration’s detention of Al Qaeda suspects, and constitutional experts said it would raise unique legal issues.

Chief among the quandaries is whether a U.S. district court, which ordinarily is restricted to a geographical area, has jurisdiction over prisoners held on Cuban territory leased to the U.S. government. Also, the judge will determine whether the petitioners--all from Los Angeles--have the legal standing to pursue such a case.

In addition, the court could be forced to weigh whether detainees were acting on behalf of a government or a terrorist organization.

“On the surface, it certainly looks meritorious,” said Karl Manheim, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Law School, who read the petition Sunday. “This is really designed to test the validity of military trials and, to a lesser extent, the validity of their removal from Afghanistan, and third, to challenge the conditions of their detention.”

The petition for a writ of habeas corpus was delivered Saturday evening to a U.S. District Court judge in Los Angeles. It was prepared on behalf of approximately 110 Al Qaeda suspects taken into custody in Afghanistan and transferred to the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

The petition alleges that the detainees are being held in violation of the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Convention. It requests that U.S. authorities produce the prisoners in a U.S. court, explain the reasons for their detention, and accord them due-process guarantees. It also seeks to block any transfer of the detainees from the U.S. base in Cuba.

Attorney Stephen Yagman, best known for high-publicity cases involving police abuse, filed the petition for a coalition of clergy, journalism professors and civil-rights attorneys, among them former Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark and USC law professor Erwin Chemerinsky.

“These individuals were brought out of their country in shackles, drugged, gagged and blindfolded, and are being held in open-air cages in Cuba,” Chemerinsky said. “Someone should be asserting their rights under international law.”

The Bush administration has argued that at least some of the detainees were operatives of the Al Qaeda international terrorist network, and not a legally constituted foreign government.

This distinction is key to determining the extent of their protection by the U.S. Constitution and international law.

U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft has said that the detainees are being held for interrogation, and that some could be tried in a military tribunal, while others could be held accountable in criminal courts. The U.S. government also contends they are not prisoners of war, a precept that has not been directly challenged by international authorities.

International Red Cross officials have begun questioning detainees about their treatment, and last week U.N. human-rights chief Mary Robinson urged the U.S. to abide by international law and not “fudge or blur the edges.”

Yagman said he filed the petition in Los Angeles “because I’m here. That’s where the lawyer is.” He said any district court should have jurisdiction over the case. “The important thing is this will force them to say something,” Yagman said of the U.S. government.

An additional habeas corpus petition is expected from an Australian attorney, who said last week that he would file on behalf of a countryman being held among the Al Qaeda suspects.