'Enemy combatant' case delayed for a month
Appellate court overturns order for Hamdi appearance
From Terry Frieden
CNN Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A federal appeals court Monday blocked a lower court from ordering a U.S.-born man designated as an "enemy combatant" to be released or brought to federal court by Tuesday.
Yaser Esam Hamdi has been in U.S. military custody since his arrest on the battlefield in Afghanistan in November 2001.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rebuffed U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar, who had demanded Hamdi be brought to court, and that the government turn over documents supporting the Defense Department's detention of him.
"All proceedings before the District Court are hereby stayed," the appeals court said in a one-page order.
The three-judge panel said the lower court had no jurisdiction to proceed in the Hamdi case until September 27 under existing judicial rules. The government had made that request in its appeal Friday.
The Justice Department told the court Friday that officials had reached the "broad outlines of an agreement" with attorneys for Hamdi but needed more time to work out details of the anticipated release.
Hamdi has dual citizenship in Saudi Arabia and the United States, where he was born to Saudi parents.
After his capture, he was transferred to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but then was brought to the United States when officials confirmed his American citizenship.
Under the proposed deal, Hamdi would renounce his U.S. citizenship and be returned to Saudi Arabia, according to a Justice Department document. He would not be allowed to return to the United States.
In a July 28 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded U.S. citizens designated by the president as enemy combatants and held under U.S. military custody can appeal their detention and defend themselves in court.
While the court also upheld the right of the executive branch to hold such suspects, the Hamdi ruling dampened the Bush administration's aggressive antiterror policies with a measure of constitutional protections for certain terror suspects.
The Pentagon said in December that military investigators had finished their interrogation of Hamdi. No charges have been filed against him.
The government said Hamdi was no longer of intelligence value and it was willing to release him with conditions that protected U.S. national security interests.
In a previous brief, the administration said Hamdi surrendered to U.S.-supported Afghan forces while armed with an AK-47 automatic rifle.
"He affiliated with a Taliban unit and received weapons training, following the September 11 attacks and after U.S. and coalition forces began military operations in Afghanistan," the legal brief said.
Hamdi and Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen also designated as an enemy combatant, are being held in a military brig in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Padilla lost his Supreme Court case on a legal technicality -- the justices said his lawyers filed their appeal in the wrong federal court.
