Delay on citizen-detainee appeal
on Aug 17, 2007 at 10:45 am
The U.S. Solicitor General has obtained a postponement of the due date for filing a petition for review in a case testing U.S. courts’ authority to hear a challenge to the transfer of an American citizen to Iraqi authorities for criminal prosecution. The deadline for filing a cert petition in Omar v. Geren had been next Wednesday, but Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., has given the government until Sept. 21 to file.
Shawqi Ahmad Omar is one of two U.S. citizens being held by U.S. military forces in Iraq before being turned over to Iraqi authorities in criminal cases there. The other is Mohammad Munaf, who faces the death penalty for a conviction if transferred to Iraqi custody. Munaf’s petition for review is pending at the Court (06-1666); the SG response in that case is now due Sept. 14. Munaf’s transfer to Iraqi officials has been stayed while his case is in the Supreme Court.
The Justice Department has been using its consideration of how to proceed in the Supreme Court in the Omar and Munaf cases as a basis for asking a U.S. District Court not to order Omar’s immediate release from military custody, but to delay all proceedings until after the Supreme Court has acted on appeals on the issue. Omar’s lawyers have contended that he is entitled to release now because the government has delayed or not adequately responded to court orders in the case. The demand for immediate release is pending before U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina in Omar v. Geren (District Court docket 05-2374).
If a petition for cert is filed in the Omar case, that would not be an appeal from the District Court habeas roceedings, but rather from a Feb. 9 ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court allowing Omar’s challenge to his transfer to proceed in Judge Urbina’s Court. (The Circuit Court ruled in Omar v. Geren, Circuit docket 06-5126; it denied rehearing May 24, and issued its mandate on June 15.)
