Responsive Image

Sticky Uighur decision plays into tricky U.S. constitutional battle

Originally published by World Radio Switzerland, 17 February 2010

Switzerland’s decision to allow the transfer of two brothers being held at Guantanamo Bay may help the Obama administration to avoid a landmark Supreme Court case. Arkin Mahmud and Bahtiyar Mahnut are Uighur Muslims from China and their cases are at the center of a tricky constitutional battle in Washington.

The argument is over the government’s power to hold inmates indefinitely—a precedent set during the Bush administration. The Swiss decision now means that all the detainees in the Supreme Court case have been cleared for release in another country. From Washington, Daniel Ryntjes reports:

http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/switzerland/sticky-uighur-decision-plays-into-tricky-us-consti.shtml?17974