A federal appeals court in Washington D.C. has ruled that suspected Taleban and al-Qaida members held at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba have no right to U.S. legal protections.
The three-judge panel upheld an earlier ruling, which denied the detainees access to the U.S. legal system because they are aliens being held outside U.S. sovereign territory. The appeals court said the Constitution does not entitle the men to due process in an American court of law.
Detainees originally from Kuwait, Australia and Britain had challenged the lower court ruling. Lawyers for the men, citing international law, argued the U.S. government is holding them illegally without charging them or allowing them to meet with an attorney.
The ruling is a victory for the Bush Administration, which says the detainees are enemy combatants without U.S. legal rights.
The military has been holding about 600 detainees at Guantánamo since their capture during the war in Afghanistan more than a year ago.
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