Guantanamo: Legal no-man’s land?

Riz speaks to two leading experts on Guantanamo Bay [EPA]

The military tribunal system set up by the Bush administration in 2001 to prosecute “enemy combatants” was dealt another blow last week, this time from the US Supreme Court. The court ruled that detainees could bring their cases to civil courts in the US.

More than 500 prisoners held there without charges for years have been released, but 270 remain. About 70 of those have been cleared for release, but no country will take them.

Government officials say that the Supreme Court ruling will not affect the decision to prosecute 19 of the Guantanamo prisoners in military commissions.

To explore what the court’s decision means to the prisoners, and to Bush’s vision of the “war on terror” in general, Riz speaks on Monday with two legal experts on Guantanamo.

Kyndra Tundra is a former prosecutor in Guantanamo, and the author of the forthcoming book, Honor Bound: Inside the Guantanamo Trials. And Shayana Kadilal is a human rights attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York. Kadilal was one of the lawyers that worked on the Supreme Court case.

Watch part one of this episode of Riz Khan

Watch part two of this episode of Riz Khan

You can join the conversation. Watch Riz live at 1900gmt, with repeats at 0030GMT, 0500GMT, and 1000GMT.

This episode of Riz Khan aired on Monday, June 16, 2008

---

To contact us click on ‘Send your feedback’ at the top of the page

Watch Al Jazeera English programmes on YouTube

Join our debates on the Your Views section of the site