Judge's ruling marks a milestone in legal challenges to Bush Admin practice of indefinite detention

[kpete]

Judge says U.S. must alert lawyer on detainee transfer

The ruling comes as the Supreme Court weighs whether prisoners held overseas have legal rights in U.S. system.
By Henry Weinstein, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 4, 2007

A federal judge in Washington ordered the U.S. not to transfer a detainee held in U.S. custody in Afghanistan without giving 30 days' notice to his attorney.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler issued the ruling on behalf Haji Rohullah, who worked as a driver before being taken into custody by the U.S. in August 2006 at a farm owned by his family in Jalalabad.

The judge's ruling marks a milestone in legal challenges to the Bush administration's practice of indefinitely detaining people in the war on terror, said New York attorney Tina Monshipour Foster, executive director of the International Justice Network and one of Rohullah's attorneys.

Kessler said her ruling, issued late Tuesday, was necessary to preserve the status quo pending the outcome of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court on whether detainees held outside the U.S. have any legal rights in American courts.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-detainee4oct04,1,683300.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true

[Solly Mack]

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