US affirms four Guantanamo detainees are ‘enemy combatants’

US OFFICIALS yesterday decided after a review by a military panel that four terror suspects held at Guantanamo are properly classified as “enemy combatants” and will not be freed.

They are the first cases, of 21 reviewed so far, to be decided. There is no appeal process.

The hearings were the first opportunity that detainees have had to plead their cases since the Guantanamo Bay prison camp was set up in late 2001 to house suspected Islamic militants.

Navy Secretary Gordon England, who is overseeing the reviews but has no say in the outcome of individual cases, told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday that the process, which began on July 30, has proven more time consuming than expected, mainly because of translation requirements.

Mr England said he expected all of the nearly 600 terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay will have their cases heard by the end of the year. Any who are determined to be improperly classified as “enemy combatants” would be released to their home country, officials have said.

The names and nationalities of the four suspects whose cases have been decided have not been made public. Mr England said the countries involved would be notified by the US State Department.

Human rights lawyers criticised the hearings as a sham, pointing out that detainees are not allowed lawyers and saying the officers hearing cases can’t be considered impartial. The Pentagon calls the officers “neutral” because they have had no involvement with the suspects.

The military reviews were set up by the Pentagon in response to a June 28 Supreme Court decision that allows detainees to challenge their imprisonment in federal courts.

This is separate from a more elaborate military tribunal, which the Pentagon calls a military commission, which was established by US President George W Bush in 2002 and is designed to conduct trials of non-American terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay. No such trials have yet been held, although the US government has designated 15 people at Guantanamo Bay as eligible for trial.

Mr England said the sole purpose of the reviews, known officially as Combatant Status Review Tribunals, is to determine whether a detainee is an “enemy combatant”.

Human rights groups have challenged the Bush administration’s position that the detainees can be held indefinitely without being charged.