US declares Qatari 'enemy combatant'

Marri was arrested three months after 11 September

A Qatari national accused of being an al-Qaeda member has been declared an enemy combatant and handed over to the military.

Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri faced criminal trial in Illinois accused of credit card fraud and lying to FBI agents investigating the 11 September attacks.

Mr Marri, a student in Illinois, was detained three months after the attacks on Washington and New York in 2001.

The US Justice Department said on Monday it was dropping the criminal charges and handing Mr Marri over to the military authorities.

He is now with the Navy in South Carolina, where he can be held indefinitely without charge and loses his right to legal representation.

Mr Marri's lawyer, Mark Berman, told the Reuters news agency he had not been able to speak to his client for almost three weeks.

'Laws of war'

The Justice Department claims Mr Marri helped settle al-Qaeda operatives who were planning attacks in the US.

He is the third person in the US to be declared an enemy combatant.

The move has been criticised by New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"It is invoking the laws of war in the United States to justify locking people up without charge and without access to a lawyer," said Wendy Patten, the organisation's US advocacy director.

"This kind of military detention has no place in a country committed to the rule of law."