US: US orders an Afghan detainee at Guantanamo freed
Fri Jul 31 03:43:27 EST 2009
WASHINGTON, July 30 AFP - A US judge on Thursday ordered the release before the end of August of Guantanamo Bay detainee Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan who is one of the youngest men held at the notorious prison camp.
Judge Ellen Huvelle granted a "writ of habeas corpus" concerning Jawad, whose lawyers say he was just 12 at the time of his arrest in 2002.
The Pentagon says he was 16 or 17 when Jawad was originally arrested in Afghanistan on charges that he threw a grenade at a US convoy in the country.
A military judge tossed out most of the evidence against Jawad late last year and a federal prosecutor quit the case, saying the young Afghan's statements had been obtained through torture.
Afghanistan has demanded that the United States return Jawad, now aged around 19, to his native country, saying his arrest was "totally illegal" and even proposing to dispatch an airplane to bring him home.
US President Barack Obama is facing mounting challenges over how and where to try or release detainees as he seeks to honor a pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay facility by January.
The prison, located on a US naval base in southeastern Cuba, still holds 229 men captured as suspected terrorists or "enemy combattants" under former president George W Bush.
