Reuters
President Bush lacks the power to detain an immigrant as an enemy combatant without charge, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
The case involves a Qatari national and suspected al-Qaida operative who is the only person being held in the United States as an “enemy combatant.”
In a major setback for the administration, the appellate panel ruled that the government’s evidence afforded no basis to treat Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri as an “enemy combatant” and ordered his release from military custody.
“The government cannot subject al-Marri to indefinite military detention. For in the United States, the military cannot seize and imprison civilians – let alone imprison them indefinitely,” Judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote.
Al-Marri has been held in a U.S. Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., for about four years without any charges.