The US Supreme Court has refused an appeal bid by one of Guantanamo's most famous detainees, backing the legitimacy of the special military courts in place at the US naval base in Cuba.
Agence France Presse said Tuesday that the decision confirms the life sentence handed to Ali Hamza Ahmad al-Bahlul, a lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, and held in Guantanamo since 2002.
The Yemeni, identified as the former propagandist of al-Qaeda, appealed his conviction in 2008 for criminal conspiracy.
According to his lawyers, this charge should have been brought before a federal civil court and not a military court.
The Supreme Court move is good news to Donald Trump's administration. He has spoken in favor of resorting more to using Guantanamo facilities and courts to incarcerate new detainees from Afghanistan and Iraq, whom Washington considers “enemy combatants.”
