AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
News Flash

AI Index: AMR 51/101/2006 (Public)
News Service No: 168
29 June 2006

Today's Supreme Court ruling blocking the military commissions set up by President George W. Bush is a victory for the rule of law and human rights, said Amnesty International today in reaction to the US Supreme Court's ruling on the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan.

Amnesty International also said that President Bush should use the ruling as a springboard for ensuring that the USA brings all its 'war on terror' detention policies into full compliance with US and international law. This includes cancelling the trials by military commission, revoking the Military Order that established them, closing the Guantánamo detention camp, and ending all secret and arbitrary detentions.

"The US administration should ensure that those held in Guantánamo should be either released or brought before civilian courts on the US mainland," said Rob Freer, Amnesty International researcher on the US.

In a 5-3 vote, Justice John Paul Stevens, who said the proposed trials were illegal under US law and international Geneva conventions. The decision was based on the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a 36-year-old yemeni national who has spent four years in the US detention centre, but it will directly affect at least another 10 inmates who had been named for trial by Military Commissions.

Public Document
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For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW. web: http://www.amnesty.org

For latest human rights news view http://news.amnesty.org

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