Detainees of the United States-run detention facility at Guantanamo Bay have made legal progress in the ongoing controversy over the prison’s lack of habeas corpus. Human Rights Watch has urged the President Bush to immediately return to Bosnia five detainees ordered free by a US federal court, which has found that the US government has no right in detaining the five men, held for seven years.

The ruling follows one made by the Supreme Court in June 2007 that holds detainees at Guantanamo have the right to challenge their imprisonment in a federal court.

“Today, the courts have restored checks and balances to US government detentions,” said Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch. “After seven long years, the courts have finally been able rule on the Bush administration’s claim of unchecked authority to detain.”

A sixth detainee is still being held as the court ruled in the state’s favor in his case. It ruled that there is enough evidence to suggest that Belkacem Bensayah was a facilitator for al Qaeda and that the government could continue to detain him without charge. Human Rights Watch urges that the US either try or release him immediately.

The petitioners were six Bosnian-Algerians - all plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case - who were initially arrested in Bosnia-Herzegovina on suspicion of plotting to bomb the US Embassy in Sarajevo in late 2001. Although the US government has since dropped those allegations, it has continued to claim that all six men traveled to Afghanistan to join hostile actions against the United States and that they could therefore be legitimately detained as “enemy combatants.”

Human Rights Watch rejects the US government’s claim that any known combatant or cooperator who acts in association with al Qaeda can be held without charge in detention. The organization argues that the US should bring criminal charges against these detainees or set them free.

The federal judge made it clear that it expects the government to act quickly in upholding the ruling of the court and arranging that the men be returned to Bosnia. He also asked the government to forego an appeal, remarking, “seven years is enough.”

“These men have been in Guantanamo for seven years too long,” Daskal said. “The Bush administration should now heed the court’s ruling and immediately arrange their return to Bosnia.”