A panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Nov. 4 suspended its review the status of Guantánamo Bay detainee Yasin Muhammed of Yemen [2] as an "enemy combatant," saying it may lack jurisdiction over the case. Basardh had petitioned the court to review a Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) determination that he could be held as an "enemy combatant," but the court said that provisions of the Detainee Treatment Act [3] of 2005 that gave it authority to review the decision were likely at odds with a 2007 Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush [4] giving federal district courts authority to review habeas corpus petitions by detainees.
The decision is the latest in a series of judicial challenges to current US detention rules. In October, Judge Richard Leon of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that in order to be validly held as an "enemy combatants," Guantánamo Bay detainees must have directly supported hostilities against the US or its allies. (Jurist [5], Nov. 5)
See our last posts on Gitmo and the detainment scandal [6].
