Judge Orders Release of another Guantánamo Prisoner after Seven Years

[struggle4progress]

Sunday, May 17, 2009

While President Barack Obama has given the go-ahead, once again, for military tribunals to try suspected terrorists, U.S. federal courts continue to find serious problems with the legal cases that the government has built against Guantánamo detainees. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ordered the release of Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed, a Yemeni who had been held at the Guantánamo Bay prison since June 2002 after being arrested in Pakistan. Lacking direct evidence to prove its charges against Ali Ahmed, the government relied on the “mosaic” theory that pieces together various facts that, when viewed together, imply that a defendant committed a crime. Kessler wrote in her opinion that the government’s “mosaic” of evidence did not add up against Ali Ahmed, who was accused of having fought in Afghanistan, and that the government “produced virtually no credible evidence” to prove that he had even been to Afghanistan, much less fought U.S. or allied forces. As was the case with Ayman Saeed Batarfi, the judge said the government relied on witnesses whose credibility was unreliable and whose statements were made “at the Bagram Prison in Afghanistan, about which there have been widespread, credible reports of torture and detainee abuse" ...

http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/Judge_Orders_Release_of_another_Guantanamo_Prisoner_after_Seven_Years_90517