Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Lawyers ask high court to free Uighurs

|
|
 
  
Published: June 5, 2009 at 11:20 PM

WASHINGTON, June 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court should order the government to free 17 Chinese Muslims from detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, their lawyers said Friday.

The lawyers filed a petition asking the high court to enforce a ruling made eight months ago by U.S. District Judge Richard Urbina in Washington, The Miami Herald reported.

The men, all Uighurs from western China, have been held at Guantanamo for almost eight years. Five were released to Albania, but the U.S. government has been unable to find other countries willing to take them, will not return them to China for fear they might be tortured, and will not accept them in the United States.

''The historic role of the Judicial Branch is to demand the release of prisoners precisely when the political branches find release inconvenient,'' the lawyers said.

The Uighurs are held separately from other detainees in a unit known as Camp Iguana. Several staged a protest Monday for the benefit of reporters touring the camp, holding up homemade posters.

Recommended Stories
© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
The Tibetan Moniam Festival in China Super Bowl XLVI ticker tape victory parade The making of the Oscars
The Chicago Auto Show The Most Desirable Women of 2012 Tu Bishvat Migron settlement
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 21
President Obama Signs Smuggling Prevention Act at White House
View Caption
fark
Nothing is more romantic on Valentine's Day than taking your lover on a tour of New York's sewers...
Man arrested for writing 'bomb' on some toilet paper. "His family says the word 'bomb' is often...
Now that gay marriage is legal in California, the state's Health Department thought it was necessary...
Scientists discover a drug designed to fight cancer reverses Alzheimer's in mice. Still no cure...
Cutting out the middle man ... antiques dealer with late stage cancer hosting her own estate sale...
Customer from grocery store finds hand grenade hidden among potatoes