Another detainee files plea in Court
on Feb 15, 2007 at 1:01 pm
With the legal fate of Guantanamo Bay detainees still unresolved in the D.C. Circuit Court, another detainee on Thursday asked the Supreme Court for help in learning why he has been held prisoner for more than five years. Lawyers for Sharaf Al Sanani, a citizen of Yemen who was captured in Pakistan in December 2001, made the most modest request of the Court so far by a detainee: a request for an emergency order requiring the Pentagon to specific why he is imprisoned at the military prison camp in Cuba. His lawyers say they need some facts in order to handle a scheduled review of his status by a military tribunal.
The Al Sanani application for injunction pending an appeal to the Supreme Court (Al Sanani v. Bush, docket 06A797) can be found here. The application was filed with Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., as Circuit Justice for D.C. Al Sanani’s habeas case has been put on hold in U.S. District Court until the Circuit Court rules on two packets of cases, pending for nearly two years, on detainee rights. The Circuit Court on Feb. 9 also put on hold Al Sanani’s plea for an order to force the Pentagon to justify his detention. (The next opportunity for the Circuit Court to rule on the pending cases is tomorrow, Friday. There is no advance indication whether it will do so then.)
The Supreme Court, at its private Conference Friday, is expected to examine the first detainee request to take action that could move some of the detainee cases along despite the delays in lower courts. That request is discussed in this post. A third request is expected to be filed shortly, as discussed here.
Al Sanani’s new application formally seeks what is called a “factual return” to his habeas plea. Such a return could provide additional details on why the Pentagon has designated him to be an “enemy combatant,” beyond what his lawyers say are thin allegations so far made public. The military has said he is being held because he was “associated with Al Qaeda.” His lawyers told the Supreme Court Thursday: “Not a single criminal act is alleged, much less any hostile act directed at the United States or its allies.” Al Sanani has denied any ties to Al Qaeda, and has said he went to Afghanistan on a religious visit, and was later taken prisoner when he traveled to Pakistan. Al Sanani is 28 years old. His lawyers have said that he “appears to have spent the better part of his adult life in Guantanamo Bay simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Al Sanani’s lawyers have been told by the Pentagon that he is scheduled to go before a panel that will provide an annual review of his status. Such a proceeding is to decide whether he would remain a prisoner, and remain designated as an “enemy combatant.” His lawyers need further information from the military, they said in the application to the Chief Justice, so that they can make a “meaningful submission” before that tribunal by a Feb. 23 deadline. That proceeding, his lawyers have said, “i s a complete sham…if [he] and hiscounsel are not given notice of the purported factual basis for his detention prior to any hearing.”
The Pentagon has refused to supply any further information, leading Al Sanani’s attorneys to pursue emergency relief first in District Court and then in the Circuit Court and, failing in those courts, in the Supreme Court.
The application notes that other federal judges have ordered the military to provide detention reasons for others at Guantanamo so that their lawyers can represent them in ongoing review hearings.
Chief Justice Roberts has the authority to act on his own on Al Sanani’s application, or he can refer it to the full Court.
