In this May 15, 2007 file photo that was reviewed by the US Military, a detainee, centre is escorted by US military personnel at the detention facility on Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base in Cuba. The US Supreme Court ruled yesterday, that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in US civilian courts. - AP

WASHINGTON (AP):

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guan-tanamo Bay, Cuba, have rights under the United States Constitution to challenge their detention in civilian courts.

In its third rebuke of the Bush administration's treatment of prisoners, the court ruled 5-4 that the government is violating the rights of prisoners being held indefinitely and without charges at the US naval base in Cuba. The court's liberal justices were in the majority.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."

Security concerns

Kennedy said federal judges could ultimately order some detainees to be released, but that such orders would depend on security concerns and other circumstances.

It was not immediately clear whether this ruling, unlike the first two, would lead to prompt hearings for the detainees, some of whom have been held more than six years. Roughly 270 men remain at the island prison, classified as enemy combatants and held on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The administration opened the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to hold enemy combatants, people suspected of ties to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

The Guantanamo prison has been harshly criticised at home and abroad for the detentions themselves and the aggressive interrogations that were conducted there.

Enemy combatants

The court said not only that the detainees have rights under the Constitution, but also that the system the administration has put in place, to classify them as enemy combatants and review those decisions, is inadequate.

The administration had argued, first, that the detainees have no rights. But it also contended that the classification and review process was a sufficient substitute for the civilian court hearings that the detainees seek.

In dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, criticised his colleagues for striking down what he called "the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants."

Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas also dissented.