US appeals court emphatically overturns military tribunal ruling

On June 12, the US Supreme Court ruled by a 5-4 margin that Guantánamo prisoners could file habeas corpus petitions challenging the legality of their confinement. The combined impact of the two rulings may be to call into question the ability of the government to proceed with its kangaroo court tribunals.

The latest decision, the first review of the military tribunal process, involves the fate of Huzaifa Parhat, a Muslim and a member of the Uighur minority in western China. The Uighurs complain of harassment and mistreatment by the Beijing regime, which accuses them, in turn, of separatism and splittism.

According to Parhats testimony, he fled China in May 2001 because of the central governments oppression and arrived at a Uighur camp in Afghanistan in June. In mid-October 2001, following the attack on the World Trade Center and the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, American aerial strikes destroyed the camp where Parhat was living. He and 17 other unarmed Uighurs eventually crossed over into Pakistan. Local residents gave them food and shelter, but turned them over to Pakistani officials, reportedly for a bounty, who handed them off to the US military. Parhat and most of the other Uighurs have been incarcerated in Guantánamo since June 2002.