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U.S. Circumvents Courts With Enemy Combatant Tag
Wednesday, June 12, 2002
Human Rights Watch

To maintain its designation of al-Mujahir as an enemy combatant, the U.S. government would need to demonstrate to a civilian court a clear nexus between his activities and the armed conflict with the United States in Afghanistan. If a court determines he is an enemy combatant, then he may be detained without charges for the duration of active hostilities, but not indefinitely.

NEW YORK -- Source
President Bush's unilateral designation of Abdullah al-Mujahir as an "enemy combatant" creates a dangerous loophole that threatens basic criminal justice guarantees, Human Rights Watch said today.

"The president is claiming unfettered power to circumvent the justice system and its safeguards of basic rights," said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. "There should be a strong presumption that anyone arrested in the United States, far from any battlefield, be granted the full legal protections of the criminal justice system-including the right to counsel and not to be held without charges. Simply accusing someone of working with al-Qaeda does not justify throwing him into a navy brig."

According to U.S. officials, al-Mujahir, originally named Jose Padilla, had met with senior al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan to plan attacks in the United States, including the detonation of a radioactive "dirty bomb." Al-Mujahir was detained in Chicago on May 8, and then held in New York as a "material witness." This week he was sent to a military base in South Carolina where the U.S. government is holding him as an "enemy combatant" without charges or access to an attorney.
(More: Human Rights News Source)
2002 © Human Rights Watch.

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