The United States Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that President George W Bush overstepped his powers by setting up special war crime tribunals for "war on terror" suspects.
WASHINGTON: The United States Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that President George W Bush overstepped his powers by setting up special war crime tribunals for 'war on terror' suspects.
The tribunal for a Guantanamo prisoner cannot proceed because it violates the Geneva Conventions, it said.
“We conclude that the military commission convened to try (Salim Ahmed) Hamdan lacks power to proceed because its structure and procedures violate; the international agreement that covers treatment of prisoners of war, as well as US military laws,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court majority in the 5-3 decision.
That part of the decision was a stinging blow for the administration in a case brought by Hamdan, who was Osama bin Laden's driver in Afghanistan.
At the White House, spokesman Tony Snow said, “We have no comment until we have read the decision but we will once we have read the decision.”
"The judgment of the court of appeals is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings," the Supreme Court said in its verdict on an appeals court ruling that declared the tribunals legal.
The Supreme Court decision could have far-reaching consequences for the US handling of the war on terror unleashed after the September 11, 2001 attacks and the future of the Guantanamo Bay prison where about 450 inmates are being held as "enemy combatants".
The ruling will have little effect on the detention camp that holds 450 foreign captives, the camp commander said.
“I don't think there's any direct outcome on our detention operation,” Rear Adm Harry Harris, the prison commander, said in an interview this week before the ruling.
The high court upheld on Thursday a Guantanamo defendant's challenge to President Bush's power to create the military tribunals to try suspected Al Qaeda conspirators and Taliban supporters.
Harris said he would build a second courtroom if the tribunals are allowed to proceed but little else would change because the court was not asked to rule on Guantanamo itself, a prison camp that human rights groups, the United Nations and foreign governments have sharply criticized.
The tribunals have come under fire from lawyers, who say they are rigged to ensure conviction and offer none of the basic guarantees and rights granted suspects in the US justice system or to which formal prisoners of war would be entitled.
Ten detainees at Guantanamo have been charged before the tribunals, and prosecutors have said they will charge as many as 25 more if the court rules in favor of the commissions.
“If they rule against the government I don't see how that's going to affect us. From my perspective I think the impact will be negligible,” Harris said.
About 120 prisoners at the base in have been cleared for release, or transfer to their homelands where Washington expects them to remain in detention.
Faced with growing international condemnation of the camp after three prisoners committed suicide on June 10, Bush has said he would like to empty the detention center.
But the director of interrogations at Guantanamo said many of the rest could be held a very long time because U.S. officials will not release those whom they are convinced have the connections, training and means to carry out attacks.
“Nobody wants to be the first person to allow the next 9/11 to happen,” said interrogations chief Paul Rester. “Emptying this place is not my goal.”
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