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News. By Alaa Shahine, Associated Press Writer. Sat Oct 19,12:24 PM ET
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - A Qatari lawyer representing 92 terror
suspects detained at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base said Saturday he plans
to file a lawsuit in Cuba demanding the release of his clients.
"U.S. courts said the case doesn't fall in their jurisdiction as
detainees are not U.S. citizens and are held in Cuba, so we have decided to
bring the case to Cuban courts," Najeeb Al-Nauimi, a lawyer and former
Qatari justice minister, told The Associated Press from Doha, Qatar's capital.
Al-Nauimi said a Cuban lawyer had already started procedures for filing the
suit.
"I am waiting for my visa to go there and we hope that the court agrees
on examining the case by the end of this month or early November," he said.
On Friday, U.S. Justice Department asked a federal appeals court to uphold a
ruling that some 600 suspected Taliban and al-Qaida fighters held in Cuba have
no right to hearings in American courts.
In a brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit, the government says international treaties don't apply and military
control over the naval base is irrelevant, as long as the prisoners are
technically outside the sovereign territory of the United States.
Al-Nauimi maintains that the detention of his clients is illegal because
they haven't been charged. He expressed hope that the Cuban court would not
handle the suit as a political case.
"We have hope as long as the case won't be handled from a political
perspective. And even if we lose, the propaganda created from such a case will
serve our cause," Al-Nauimi said.
U.S. troops seized Guantanamo Bay in 1898 during the Spanish-American War.
Since a 1903 agreement, the United States has leased the land from Cuba for
2,000 gold coins a year, now valued at US$4,085. The U.S. government still pays,
but Fidel Castro's government opposes the U.S. presence and refuses to cash the
checks.
Nevertheless, tensions have eased with the end of the Cold War, and Cuba has
said it won't oppose holding prisoners from the war on terrorism on its soil.
Al-Nauimi, who was granted power of attorney by 92 families of the
Guantanamo detainees, most of them from Saudi Arabia, said he also plans to file
another lawsuit at a U.S. court, though he admitted he expects little from such
action.
as-hhr
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