Detention of 'US Taleban' upheld

Mr Hamdi was previously held in Guantanamo Bay

A US federal appeals court has ruled that a US-born prisoner captured during the war in Afghanistan can be treated as an enemy combatant.

The ruling is a considerable legal victory for the Bush administration.

Detention of enemy combatants prevents them from rejoining the enemy and continuing to fight against America and its allies

US Attorney General John Ashcroft

The decision, overturning an earlier federal court ruling, means that Yasser Esam Hamdi will not be afforded the usual rights granted to a US citizen.

Under the US constitution, these include US legal representation or information as to how long a detainee may be held by authorities.

The three-judge panel found that the federal judge in his earlier ruling had been wrong to demand that the US Government should hand over more information to justify the continued detention of Mr Hamdi.

They also said that, although the case did raise questions about the rights of citizens, the US Government's authority is supreme in deciding who may be held indefinitely.

"Judicial review does not disappear during wartime, but the review of battlefield captures in overseas conflicts is a highly deferential one," the panel wrote in their opinion.

Test case

US Attorney General John Ashcroft hailed the decision, calling it "an important victory for the president's ability to protect the American people in times of war".

Padilla, the so-called dirty bomber, is also being held as an enemy combatant

"Detention of enemy combatants prevents them from rejoining the enemy and continuing to fight against America and its allies, and has long been upheld by our nation's courts, regardless of the citizenship of the enemy combatant," he said.

Mr Hamdi, 22, was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Saudi Arabian parents but moved back to Saudi Arabia when he was still a small child.

In November 2001 he was captured by coalition forces during the war in Afghanistan following a prison uprising by Taleban and al-Qaeda forces in Qala-e-Jhangi, near the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

He was held in the US prison camp of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before being moved to a prison in Norfolk, Virginia, in April last year after authorities discovered he was a US citizen.

His case was considered a major test for the US Government's ability to hold citizens without access to lawyers or the courts.

Precedents

Critics have argued that if Mr Hamdi could be imprisoned in a military jail with little constitutional protection then other US citizens could be similarly held.

Alleged "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla has been detained as an enemy combatant since June last year following his arrest for allegedly plotting to build a radioactive bomb.

And so-called American Taleban John Walker Lindh was also held as an enemy combatant before his sentencing to 20 years in prison last October for his part in the Qala-e-Jhangi uprising.