U.S. court rejects former Guantanamo detainee's damages claim
Source: Reuters
BY LAWRENCE HURLEY
WASHINGTON Fri Jan 17, 2014 11:53am EST
(Reuters) - A former detainee at the U.S. naval station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has failed to persuade a federal appeals court to let him sue the U.S. government for damages stemming from his treatment during seven years of detention.
In a ruling on Friday, Judge Karen Henderson conceded that the outcome may constitute "rough justice" for Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al Janko, a Syrian who says he was tortured and suffered physical and psychological degradation at Guantanamo from 2002 to 2009 after being detained in Afghanistan in 2001.
Writing for a three-judge panel on U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Henderson said that based on what Congress has directed, courts do not have the authority to hear lawsuits like the one filed by Janko.
Janko was released from Guantanamo in October 2009 after a successful legal challenge to his detention. Prior to his detention by U.S. forces, Janko had been imprisoned and tortured by the then-Taliban-led Afghan government as a suspected U.S. spy.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/17/us-usa-court-guantanamo-idUSBREA0G17C20140117
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