Appeals Court Orders Guantanamo Detainee Freed or Given New Hearing

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A federal appeals court ruled Monday that a Chinese Muslim detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba had been wrongly identified by Pentagon officials as an "enemy combatant" and should be released or transferred or given a new hearing.

A little over a week after the U.S. Supreme Court gave Guantanamo prisoners access to civilian courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington became the first federal court to decide on a case of a detainee in the U.S. prison camp. The Court said that Huzaifa Parhat had been improperly classified and detained for six years.

Parhat, a 37-year old Uighur Muslim, was captured in 2001 in Afghanistan. U.S. military officials had accused him along with 16 other Uighur Muslims of being part of the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, a group the Pentagon considers a terrorist organization.

Parhat's lawyers, however, have argued that the Uighur Muslims, an ethnic minority from Western China, are not terrorists but separatists that have not made any attacks against the U.S.

The decision by the three-judge appeals panel, made Friday but released on Monday, was the result of a petition made by Parhat under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005.

The Pentagon has kept mum about the ruling but spokesman Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon told the Los Angeles Times, "We're reviewing the decision and considering our options."