Bush Setback on "Enemy Combatants"
    Reuters and The Associated Press

    Monday 11 June 2007

Judges: President may not detain immigrant in US without charging him.

    Richmond, Va. - President Bush lacks the power to detain an immigrant as an enemy combatant without charge, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

    The case involves a Qatari national and suspected al-Qaida operative who is the only person being held in the United States as an "enemy combatant."

    In a major setback for the administration, the appellate panel ruled that the government's evidence afforded no basis to treat Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri as an "enemy combatant" and ordered his release from military custody.

    "The government cannot subject al-Marri to indefinite military detention. For in the United States, the military cannot seize and imprison civilians - let alone imprison them indefinitely," Judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote.

    Al-Marri has been held in a U.S. Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., for about four years without any charges.

    The ruling sent the case back to a federal judge in South Carolina with instructions to direct Defense Secretary Robert Gates to release al-Marri from military custody within a reasonable period of time.

    The government can transfer al-Marri to civilian authorities to face criminal charges, initiate deportation proceedings, hold him as a witness in a grand jury proceeding or detain him for a limited period of time under the Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism law.

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    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.