Federal Appeals Court Blocks Release of Uiger Prisoners from Guantanamo

For the first time ever, a federal court ruled this week that a group of 17 Guantanamo detainees should be released into the United States. All 17 are minority Muslim Uigers from China, and the US acknowledges they face prosecution, torture or even death if they are repatriated to China. A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that if the US government asserts no evidence against them, they must be set free. The men were supposed to be on their way to Washington today to re-start their lives – instead, it looks like they'll spend even more time in Guantanamo: a federal appeals court has blocked the original order, and then men are once again being held indefinitely, despite the fact the US government agrees it has no charges against them. They have been held since 2001. Emi Maclean, Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, says that it is clear the men pose no threat to national security, and that the case is simply about the Bush administration's continued assertion that federal courts do not have the right to order the release of anyone indefinitely detained at Guantanamo. Maclean speaks to FSRN about what the latest decision means for the prisoners

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