1 hr 1 min ago WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US federal appeals court has blocked the release of 17 Chinese Muslim Uighurs from the Guantanamo Bay prison until more legal hearings are held in November.
The men have been held at the US "war on terror" detention camp for more than six years without charges.
A federal judge on October 7 had ordered the men released and brought to the US capital, home to a significant Uighur community.
But in a 2-1 decision, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday upheld a demand from the US government to suspend the release and scheduled oral arguments in the case for November 24.
The panel "ordered that the motion for stay be granted and the district court's order directing that appellees be released into the United States be stayed pending further order of the court," the decision said.
The Uighurs were living in a self-contained camp in Afghanistan when the US-led coalition bombing campaign began in October 2001. They fled to the mountains, but were turned over to Pakistani authorities, who then handed them over to the United States.
The group has been held in limbo at Guantanamo -- despite being cleared for release by the US government -- because officials can not find a country willing to take them. The men cannot be returned to China because of fears they would be tortured there as political dissidents.
Only Albania has agreed to take Uighur detainees, welcoming a group of five in 2006.
The US government fears the earlier district court's decision could affect other cases before the federal courts, with some 250 detainees still held at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, many of whom are challenging their detentions.
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