Government Evidence Insufficient, the District Court Releases Detainee

The government plans to appeal a District Court judgment setting free Guantanamo Bay detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi. Slahi was said to have ties with the 9-11 hijackers and other al-Qaeda operatives throughout the world. Judge James Robertson presided over the case and found that the government presented sufficient evidence to support that Slahi swore allegiance to al-Qaeda in the early 1990s and may have remained a sympathizer. Judge Robertson also found that the evidence presented established that Slahi did house at least one of the masterminds of 9-11 in the late 1990s. However, Judge Robertson noted that these contacts from a decade before were “too shallow to serve as an independent basis for detention.” He held that the government’s evidence to establish that Slahi materially supported al-Queda was “so tainted by coercion and mistreatment or so classified that it could not support a criminal prosecution.” Judge Robertson noted that the government might harbor a well founded fear that the detainee will renew ties with al-Qaeda, but the court cannot allow the government to hold a man on mere suspicion. Read more at the Washington Post.