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Guantánamo prisoner successfully challenges unlawful detention
A Washington D.C. federal court opinion ordering the release of Guantánamo prisoner Mohamedou Ould Salahi (sometimes spelled "Slahi") and providing the reasons for the granting of his habeas corpus petition was made public today. Federal District Judge James Robertson ruled on March 22 that the U.S. could not continue to detain Salahi, a Mauritanian citizen who has been in U.S. custody since 2001. Judge Robertson's opinion was released today after undergoing a classification review; some portions were withheld as classified.
The American Civil Liberties Union joined attorneys Nancy Hollander and Theresa Duncan of the law firm Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Ives & Duncan P.A. and Linda Moreno of Linda Moreno P.A. in challenging Salahi's detention, arguing that the government had no reliable evidence that he was part of al-Qaida when he was seized in 2001.
"After subjecting Mr. Salahi to illegal renditions to three countries, brutal physical and psychological torture and almost daily interrogations for most of the nine years he has been in U.S. custody, the government could not even tip the scales ever so slightly to justify Mr. Salahi's detention," said Hollander, the lead attorney in the case. "It is well past time for him to go home."
"As Judge Robertson's opinion makes clear, the allegations that Mr. Salahi participated in the so-called Millennium Plot to attack the Los Angeles airport and recruited two of the 9/11 hijackers are not supported by any credible evidence," said Duncan. "The truth is the government was wrong when it first detained him, wrong when it tortured him and is wrong in continuing to detain him."