Judge Orders Gitmo Detainee, Held Since Age 14, Freed

By Cernig

Via Larisa, yet another detainee ordered released after the real judicial system, rather than Bush's kangaroo courts, examines the evidence against him.

It is the second time that U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon has ordered the release of a detainee after examining government evidence, most of it classified. Leon said that the Justice Department failed to prove that Mohammed El Gharani, 21, is an enemy combatant because it relied heavily on statements made by two other detainees whose credibility is questionable.

"A mosaic of tiles this murky reveals nothing about this petitioner with sufficient clarity" to justify his detention, Leon ruled.

Gharani, a citizen of Chad, was picked up in Pakistan and turned over to the United States in 2002. Since then, he has been held at Guantanamo Bay.

Among the ridiculous claims made was that Gharani had been a member of a London al Qaida cell. At the time, he was aged 11 and living in Saudi Arabia - an accusation based entirely upon statements made by other camp detainees which were not proven true by US investigators, just believed.

He was illegally seized in Pakistan aged 14 and is now 21.