Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> JURIST - The Paper Chase

Legal News

: JURIST - The Paper Chase

Task force recommends trials or military tribunals for 35 Guantanamo detainees: AP

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] A presidential task force has recommended that 35 Guantanamo Bay prisoners face trial or military commissions, the Associated Press reported on Friday. Government officials said that the proceedings for these detainees will most likely be carried out on US soil. The 35 detainees named in the task force report include five detainees that are already scheduled to be tried in New York for the 9/11 attacks and six detainees who have been chosen to face military tribunals. Taking into consideration the detainees to be held without charge, the total number of detainees potentially slated for transfer to the US could reach 80. It is anticipated that at least some of these detainees will be held at Thomson Correctional Center (TCC) in Illinois, which the Obama administration announced in December it plans to buy. Last week, the Associated Press reported that the Obama administration is considering bringing charges in a Washington, DC, federal court against Guantanamo Bay detainee Riduan Isamuddin, the suspected planner of the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing. In October, US President Barack Obama signed into law the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2010, which allows for Guantanamo Bay detainees to be transferred to the US for prosecution. However, in December, House minority leader John Boehner expressed doubt that the two pieces of legislation needed to bring detainees to Illinois will be passed. The Obama administration originally intended to close Guantanamo Bay by January 22, 2010, a deadline that expired on Friday.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on January 22, 2010 (boomark / email).