Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Wall Street Journal
June 13, 2008
Pg. 12
By Associated Press
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld basic legal rights for Americans held abroad by the U.S. military, but said the safeguards do not apply in the case of two U.S. citizens held in Baghdad.
The unanimous decision came in the cases of Shawqi Omar, taken into custody in Iraq for allegedly assisting a terrorist network, and Mohammad Munaf, whose death sentence by an Iraqi court was recently overturned. Mr. Munaf has been accused in Iraq of setting up the 2005 kidnapping of three Romanian journalists.
Held by the U.S. military at Camp Cropper near Baghdad International Airport, both are Sunni Muslims who say they will be tortured if turned over to Iraqi government officials. They had gone to U.S. courts to challenge their detention and block their transfer to Iraqi authorities.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that U.S. courts are not allowed to intervene in an ongoing foreign criminal proceeding and "pass judgment on its legitimacy."
"Iraq has a sovereign right to prosecute Omar and Munaf for crimes committed on its soil," Justice Roberts wrote.
June 13, 2008
Pg. 12
By Associated Press
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld basic legal rights for Americans held abroad by the U.S. military, but said the safeguards do not apply in the case of two U.S. citizens held in Baghdad.
The unanimous decision came in the cases of Shawqi Omar, taken into custody in Iraq for allegedly assisting a terrorist network, and Mohammad Munaf, whose death sentence by an Iraqi court was recently overturned. Mr. Munaf has been accused in Iraq of setting up the 2005 kidnapping of three Romanian journalists.
Held by the U.S. military at Camp Cropper near Baghdad International Airport, both are Sunni Muslims who say they will be tortured if turned over to Iraqi government officials. They had gone to U.S. courts to challenge their detention and block their transfer to Iraqi authorities.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that U.S. courts are not allowed to intervene in an ongoing foreign criminal proceeding and "pass judgment on its legitimacy."
"Iraq has a sovereign right to prosecute Omar and Munaf for crimes committed on its soil," Justice Roberts wrote.