AP: Judge orders release of 5 terror suspects at Gitmo By LARA JAKES JORDAN
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the release of five Algerians held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the continued detention of a sixth in a major blow to the Bush administration’s strategy to keep terror suspects locked up without charges.
In the first case of its kind, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said the government’s evidence linking the five Algerians to al-Qaida was not credible as it came from a single, unidentified source. Therefore, he said, the five could not be held indefinitely as enemy combatants, and should be released immediately.
“To allow enemy combatancy to rest on so thin a reed would be inconsistent with the court’s obligation,” Leon told the crowded courtroom.
Leon was appointed by President Bush in 2002.
Filed under: The War on Terror , Algerians, Guantanamo Bay, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon
