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Supreme Court to Hear Case of Uighurs Held at Guantanamo

The Supreme Court today granted cert in the case of Kiyemba v. Obama, brought by the Chinese Uighurs held at Guantanamo despite being cleared for release.

Kiyemba v. Obama is a habeas corpus petition filed in the D.C. District Court on behalf of 17 innocent Uighur men who have been imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay for almost seven years. The government acknowledged as early as 2003 that the imprisoned Uighurs were improperly detained and eligible for release. They remain imprisoned because a transfer to China would be illegal as they would be at grave risk of torture or other forms of persecution; and the US government has both refused to accept the men into the US and been unwilling or unable to find other countries willing to accept them.

The issue is whether a court can order the Uighurs released into the United States when there is no other remedy. Of the 30 detainees found to be improperly detained, 18 are still being held. [More...]

The men are represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights, which today said:

If President Obama is truly committed to closing Guantánamo, he should help these men restart their lives here in the U.S.,” said CCR Executive Director Vincent Warren. “They got the wrong men, and have kept them imprisoned for nearly eight years because there was nowhere safe to send them. If we expect the rest of the world to help us end this mess, we have to start by taking some responsibility for cleaning it up ourselves.”

All of our coverage of the Uighurs is assembled here.

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  • Display: Sort:
    status quo ante (none / 0) (#1)
    by diogenes on Tue Oct 20, 2009 at 02:47:34 PM EST
    If they were wrongly arrested then perhaps they should be released in the country where they were arrested (which certainly was not China).

    Where did the Uighurs (none / 0) (#2)
    by MO Blue on Tue Oct 20, 2009 at 02:56:17 PM EST
    who were already released go?