Judge Orders Gitmo Detainee Returned to Afghanistan

But Mohammed Jawad may still face conventional prosecution
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 30, 2009 2:03 PM CDT
Judge Orders Gitmo Detainee Returned to Afghanistan
Flags wave above the sign for Camp Justice, the site of the US war-crimes tribunal compound, at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, July 15, 2009.   (AP Photo)

A Guantanamo Bay inmate may be released to Afghanistan next month after successfully challenging his detention under habeas corpus, the Washington Post reports. US District Judge Ellen Huvelle ordered Mohammed Jawad’s release based on the dodgy evidence against him—mainly, a confession allegedly obtained by threatening to kill Jawad or his family—and the fact that the detainee has already spent 6 years at Gitmo.

Jawad, then a teenager, allegedly threw a grenade at a US military vehicle in 2002, injuring three. Congress can try to block his transfer to Afghanistan, and the Justice Department could still try him for the attack in a US court. But Huvelle advised the government to consider the case’s troubled history, and Jawad’s status as a minor at the time of the attack, before bringing charges. (More Mohammed Jawad stories.)

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