Better to Light a Candle than Curse the Darkness

A federal judge ordered the release today of a detainee at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ruling that the government's evidence was too weak to justify the man's continued confinement.

It is the second time U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon has ordered the release of a detainee after hearing the government's evidence. In today's ruling, Leon said the Justice Department failed to prove that Mohammed El Gharani, 21, was an enemy combatant because it relied almost exclusively on statements made by two other detainees whose credibility has been called into question by government personnel.

"A mosaic of tiles this murky reveals nothing about this petitioner with sufficient clarity, either individually or collectively, that can be relied upon by this court," Leon ruled from the bench.

Gharani, a citizen of Chad, was picked up in Pakistan and turned over to the United States in 2002. He has been held at Guantanamo Bay ever since.

The government alleged that Gharani traveled to Afghanistan and trained at an al-Qaeda-affiliated military camp, fought in the battle of Tora Bora and was a courier for high-level al-Qaeda members.

The government also alleged that Gharani was a member of a London-based al-Qaeda cell in 1998, an accusation that Leon found particularly hard to believe. Gharani was 14 at the time, living with immigrant parents in Saudi Arabia, according to Leon and the detainee's lawyers.

"Putting aside the obvious and unanswered questions as to how a Saudi minor from a very poor family could have even become a member of a London-based cell, the Government simply advances no corroborating evidence for these statements it believes to be reliable from a fellow detainee, the basis of whose knowledge is -- at best -- unknown," Leon said.

Gharani's attorneys argued that the teenager left Saudi Arabia for Pakistan in 2000 or 2001 to learn English and develop computer skills. They said he was picked up by mistake in Pakistan and should never have been turned over to U.S. authorities. They denied he had ever been to Afghanistan.

"This is a fantastic result," said Zachary Katznelson, Gharani's attorney. "Judge Leon did justice today. This is an innocent kid when he was seized illegally in Pakistan and should never have been in prison in the first place."

Justice Department attorneys declined to comment after the hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Leon's order comes in a lawsuit brought against the government challenging Gharani's detention under the legal doctrine of habeas corpus. Scores of detainees are challenging their confinement in such suits.
,br> In November, Leon ordered the release of five detainees, all Algerians who had been living in Bosnia at the time of their 2001 arrest. Three of those men were flown to Bosnia last month. Leon has ordered that three other detainees may remain in custody at the prison. Leon is the first judge to rule in the cases. Others are pending.