25th
The Right to a Day in Court
The Supreme Court has made it more likely that four former Guantánamo detainees will at last be given a fair hearing of their charges that they were tortured and denied their religious rights. The justices did not express a view on the substance of the former prisoners’ claims, but last week, the Supreme Court ordered a lower appellate court to reconsider the men’s case.
The four plaintiffs in Rasul v. Myers, all British citizens, were released from the naval prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, without being charged with any crimes. They say that while they were held, they were systematically tortured and abused. Among other things, they contend that they were subjected to repeated beatings, threats of attacks from unmuzzled dogs and shackling in painful positions for long periods.
The former detainees also say that their captors denigrated their religion, including deliberately submerging the Koran in a dirty toilet bucket. They argue that the abuse was the result of policy decisions made by senior government officials, up to and including Donald Rumsfeld, the former secretary of defense. -The New York Times
