Afghanistan prisoners to be allowed to challenge their detention for first time
Prisoners held in Afghanistan for years without trial in a notorious military prison and accused of being Taliban fighters or terrorists will for the first time be able to challenge their detention.



By Ben Farmer in Kabul
Published: 4:05PM BST 13 Sep 2009

More than 600 prisoners held at Bagram airbase will be given a chance to have their case reviewed under a new scheme disclosed by the Pentagon.

Detainees at the airbase north of Kabul will be given a military representative who will have authority to call witnesses and collect classified documents for them.

Prisoners currently have far fewer legal rights than those in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and cannot hear the charges against them, stand trial or employ a lawyer.

Many have been held for several years.

The US army says they are dangerous fighters or "enemy combatants" held in a war zone and often caught on the battle field.

Their families and human rights activists say many are held on flimsy evidence or are the victims of malicious denunciations stemming from tribal rivalry and feuding. An unknown number of prisoners were captured abroad and secretly flown to Bagram.

Bagram has become a feared symbol of arbitrary detention, alleged torture and lost sovereignty to Afghans and its closure was a manifesto pledge for several candidates in the recent presidential elections.

The review boards were authorised in July and military officers have already been assigned to judge cases and help detainees, though the scheme has not been officially announced.

The guidelines came to light as President Barack Obama's administration reviewed Bush-era detention policies. His government is currently in US court battles with lawyers seeking to gain full legal rights for Bagram detainees.

A previous legal decision to give Guantanamo prisoners the right to challenge their detention led to many rapid releases as cases collapsed under scrutiny.

A Pentagon official said the Bagram process would be more similar to review boards used in Iraq which managed prisoner numbers by distinguishing which detainees were safe to release.

Bagram prisoners have been refusing privileges including recreation time and family visits to protest their lack of legal rights since July.

The move was met cautiously by lawyers working with prisoners.

Lal Gul, chief of the Afghan Commission For Human Rights, said: "We support this and approve this." "We are ready for any help and cooperation in this regard." However Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at City University of New York acting for a Yemeni seized in Thailand in 2002 said it was "window dressing".

"The whole thing was meant to pull the wool over the eyes of the judicial system.

"These changes don't come anywhere near an adequate substitute for a real review."