Appeals court says Gitmo suicide suit not allowed

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Appeals court says Gitmo suicide suit not allowed

The Associated Press Published Tuesday, February 21, 2012 12:44PM EST

In this May 13, 2009, file photo, reviewed by the U.S. military, a U.S. trooper walks near an entrance to the Guantanamo detention facility at dawn, at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

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WASHINGTON - An appellate court ruled Tuesday that the families of two Guantanamo detainees who hanged themselves in their cells cannot sue for damages in U.S. courts.

The families of the detainees claimed former Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials were responsible for the deaths in 2006 and sued for unspecified money damages. They say the detainees died after being subject to arbitrary detention, torture, inhuman treatment, violations of the Geneva Conventions and cruel and unusual punishment at the U.S. detention centre.

Three conservative judges on the federal appeals court in Washington ruled that U.S. courts do not have authority to consider lawsuits related to treatment of Guantanamo detainees under the Military Commissions Act passed by Congress in 2006. They said the Supreme Court has given federal judges the authority only to determine whether detainees are being properly held or should be released.

The judges wrote that although the families argued the Military Commissions Act's failure to allow treatment suits is unconstitutional because it does not provide a way to challenge violations of constitutional rights, "the only remedy they seek is money damages, and, as the government rightly argues, such remedies are not constitutionally required." The judges who issued the opinion were President Ronald Reagan nominees David Sentelle and Stephen Williams and President George H.W. Bush nominee Raymond Randolph.

Yasser Al-Zahrani and Salah Ali Abdullah Ahmed Al-Salami were among three men who the military said were found hanging in their cells by their bed sheets in June 2006. Human rights groups said the suicides reflected the men's despair over their indefinite detention without charges, while military investigators said suicide notes found in their pockets expressed their desire for martyrdom.

The three were the first of six prisoners who have died in apparent suicides since the detention centre opened on the U.S. base in Cuba in January 2002. Two other prisoners have died from what officials said were natural causes.

Al-Zahrani, 22 years old when he died, was from Saudi Arabia and was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the suit by the men's families. Al-Salami, 37, was from Yemen and arrested by local forces in Pakistan in March 2002.

The suit was filed on their families' behalf by the New-York based Center for constitutional Rights, which represents dozens of detainees. The group said it did not file on behalf of the third detainee, 30-year-old Saudi Mani Shaman Al-Utaybi, because his family could not be located.