WASHINGTON, April 9 (UPI) -- Lawyers for an American in U.S. military custody in Iraq will appeal a court ruling that he can be handed over Iraqi authorities for execution.
A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday dismissed the habeas corpus petition of Mohammad Munaf, an Arab-American, according to a statement from his lawyers at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law.
The panel ruled that federal courts had no authority to hear Munaf's challenge to his detention and planned transfer to Iraqi custody by U.S. forces.
"The appeals court's decision contradicts an unbroken line of precedent affirming an American citizen's entitlement to habeas corpus when detained by his own government," said the Brennan Center's Jonathan Hafetz in a statement announcing Munaf's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Another lawyer at the center, Aziz Huq, told United Press International that in a similar case brought by the center in February a different panel of the same court ruled the detention of a U.S. citizen should be subject to review by way of a habeas corpus petition.
The difference was that Munaf had been convicted -- and sentenced to death -- by an Iraqi court.
But Huq said that even in the Munaf ruling, "The court seemed very troubled by the government's argument that they can hold a citizen without any review by any court."
"This is point we want the Supreme Court to clarify," Huq said.
