WASHINGTON, March 2 (UPI) -- The Justice Department argued Thursday that a new law banning torture does not apply in the detention center at Guantanamo, Cuba.
Government lawyers said in a court hearing that a provision in the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 bars Guantanamo inmates from access to the federal court. So, they said, even if the law does apply, detainees cannot pursue their claims because the law allows them only to appeal enemy combatant status and convictions by military tribunals, the Washington Post reported.
The argument before U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler concerned Mohammed Bawazir, a detainee from Yemen who has been held at Guantanamo since 2002. His lawyers say that, when he went on hunger strike, guards at the detention center used painful and degrading methods to force feed him -- including pinioning him in a special chair for two hours.
