UN rights office, jurists welcome Guantanamo ruling

GENEVA, June 29 (Reuters) The UN human rights office today welcomed the Supreme Court ruling striking down the military tribunal system set up to try Guantanamo prisoners, saying it would restore the judiciary to its rightful place.

Jose-Luis Diaz, spokesman for United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, said the decision also appeared to vindicate ''the need for vigilance'' in protecting basic rights, including those of terrorist suspects.

By a 5-3 vote, the highest US court declared that the tribunals, which Bush created after the September 11 attacks, violated the Geneva Conventions and US military rules.

''The decision is to be welcomed on two fronts: the decision is a case of restoring the judiciary to its proper place in a system of checks and balances, which is essential in upholding the rule of law,'' Diaz said.

''On the merits, it would seem to be a vindication of the need for vigilance in the protection of all human rights, including those of persons suspected of terrorism,'' he added.

The decision was a stinging blow for the US administration in a case brought by Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who was Osama bin Laden's driver in Afghanistan.

Hamdan, one of about 450 foreign terrorism suspects at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was captured in November 2001.

''RELEASE ALL PRISONERS'' Nicholas Howen, secretary-general of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), on Thursday called on the Bush administration to abolish the military tribunals.

''This is hugely important because it appears to say clearly the military commissions (tribunals) are unconstitutional and in violation of the Geneva Conventions,'' Howen told Reuters.

''Now is the time for the Bush administration to move ahead swiftly to release all prisoners in Guantanamo against whom there is insufficient evidence of criminal acts having been committed, abolish the military commissions, and if there is anyone who is suspected of a criminal offence they must be tried under normal US criminal law in normal US criminal courts,'' he added.

Doing so would bring the United States ''back into line with international law and international opinion'', Howen said.

The Geneva-based ICJ, which links 60 senior judges and lawyers worldwide, is considered an authority on international law and human rights.

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