Terror suspects 'have no right to US trial'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,767268,00.html
Rebecca Allison
Thursday August 1, 2002
The Guardian
A US federal judge yesterday ruled that two British citizens and an Australian captured in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo Bay have no right to trial before American courts.
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Clive Stafford Smith, representing Mr Iqbal and Mr Rasul, last night described the decision by US district judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly as "the ultimate exercise in hypocrisy", after she ruled that the US legal system has no jurisdiction over detainees held in Cuba and that writs of habeas corpus did not apply to aliens held outside US territory.
"The court concludes that the military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is outside the sovereign territory of the United States," she said.
Mr Stafford Smith said he would appeal the decision: "The US says it is fighting this whole war in the cause of democracy and the rule of law. What do they do then? They take these folk to Cuba where for 40 years they have said there is no rule of law and they do so explicitly to deny them of any legal rights. If that isn't ironic I don't know what is.
"The tragedy of the US attitude to this whole terrorism issue is that they are just creating more terrorists because they are illustrating to the entire world that they are not serious about this struggle for democracy."
He said that if the appeal failed he could see one other option: "This means the only court that can order the release of these folk is Fidel Castro's. That means it is time for habeas corpus in Havana. If he has a sense of humour he will grant release".
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