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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
A U.S. federal appeals court has struck down the U.S. military's classification of a Guantanamo Bay detainee as an enemy combatant. VOA's Michael Bowman reports, this is the first time the U.S. court system has overruled the Bush administration's designation of a detainee since the Guantanamo facility began operations in early 2002.
US guard at the military-run Camp Delta1 prison in Guantanamo Bay
The court ruled in favor of a Chinese Muslim, Huzaifa Parhat, who has spent the last six years in detention2 and is one of more than 100 detainees to challenge their enemy combatant status in the U.S. judicial3 system. The court directed the U.S. military to release Parhat, transfer him out of Guantanamo, or hold a new proceeding4 to once again determine his status.
The court announced its decision without providing any details, saying the ruling contains classified information. The Department of Defense5 did not immediately comment on the matter.
Human rights groups say the appeals court ruling is a landmark6 decision for Guantanamo detainees, yet one with little practical benefit for Parhat.
Stacy Sullivan is a counter-terrorism advisor7 for New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"He [Parhat] will probably not be released," she said. "He is a Chinese Uighur, and there are a number of Chinese Uighurs being held at Guantanamo who are already declared no longer enemy combatants. But they cannot leave Guantanamo because they have nowhere to go. They cannot be sent back to China because they have a well-founded fear of torture [in China], and the United States to its credit will not send them back there. So the Uighurs are pretty much stuck in Guantanamo."
In 2006, the United States released five Uighurs from Guantanamo and resettled them in Albania. China, which regards the Uighurs as terrorists and separatists, demanded Albania to return them to China. Albania did not comply.
U.S. authorities believe some Uighurs have links to al-Qaeda. But they admit the Uighurs held at Guantanamo never fought against the United States, nor did they take part in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
Human Rights Watch's Stacy Sullivan says the plight8 of the Guantanamo Uighurs points to a real dilemma9 facing the United States if at some point it decides to close Guantanamo, an action favored by both presumptive Republican and Democratic presidential nominees10.
"There are about 50 detainees there who have said they do not want to go home because they fear being tortured: Uzbeks, Libyans, Uighurs, a few other nationalities," she said. "What is to be done with them? It is simple enough to transfer those for whom we have evidence of terrorism and try them in our federal court system. But the 50 detainees who cannot go home, it is unclear what is going to happen to them, and that is going to make closing Guantanamo really difficult."
The federal appeals court ruling follows a U.S. Supreme11 Court decision earlier this month affirming the right of Guantanamo suspects to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian12 courts.
1 delta | |
n.(流的)角洲 | |
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2 detention | |
n.滞留,停留;拘留,扣留;(教育)留下 | |
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3 judicial | |
adj.司法的,法庭的,审判的,明断的,公正的 | |
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4 proceeding | |
n.行动,进行,(pl.)会议录,学报 | |
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5 defense | |
n.防御,保卫;[pl.]防务工事;辩护,答辩 | |
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6 landmark | |
n.陆标,划时代的事,地界标 | |
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7 advisor | |
n.顾问,指导老师,劝告者 | |
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8 plight | |
n.困境,境况,誓约,艰难;vt.宣誓,保证,约定 | |
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9 dilemma | |
n.困境,进退两难的局面 | |
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10 nominees | |
n.被提名者,被任命者( nominee的名词复数 ) | |
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11 supreme | |
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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12 civilian | |
adj.平民的,民用的,民众的 | |
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