US Court blocks transfer of Guantanamo detainee to Tunisia for threat of torture

On 2nd October the United States District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction blocking the transfer of a Guantanamo Bay detainee to Tunisia. The petitioner has been detained in Guantanamo Bay since an undisclosed date. On 15th May 2007 the US Government intended to transfer him out of Guantanamo Bay and to release him to the Government of Tunisia.

In Tunisia, however, he was convicted in absentia in 2005 for violations of the Tunisian Patriot Act of 2003, although at the moment, both of conviction and the promulgation of the Tunisian Patriot Act, the petitioner had already been in Guantanamo Bay. The US judge accepted the petitioner’s allegation that he would face a serious threat of torture if rendered to a Tunisian prison. In light of a test case pending before the US Supreme Court the judge granted the preliminary injunction. «In view of the grave harm Rahman has alleged he will face if transferred, it would be a profound miscarriage of justice if this court denied the motion» pending a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on rights of Guantanamo detainees, the judge wrote in her ruling.

Document : United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Rafiq Bin Bashir Bin Jallul Alhami et. al. v. George W. Bush, et. al., Civil action no. 05-359 (GK)