Court blocks Guantanamo release

US receives stay of judge's order to free Uighurs

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court yesterday temporarily blocked the release of 17 Chinese Muslims held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The appeals court granted the Bush administration's emergency request for a stay of a federal judge's order that the members of the Uighur ethnic group be released into the United States at the end of this week.

In a sharp rebuke to the Bush administration, US District Judge Ricardo Urbina ruled Tuesday that there was no evidence that the detainees, who have been held at Guantanamo for nearly seven years, were "enemy combatants" or a security risk.

He ordered that the prisoners be brought to his courtroom for a hearing tomorrow morning, when they would be freed and allowed to live with Uighur families in the area.

The administration immediately sought a stay while it appeals the case before the US appeals court.

The three-judge panel said it granted the stay only to give the appeals court more time to consider the dispute. The court ordered that briefs be filed by both sides on various dates through Oct. 16.

It then will have to decide whether the stay should remain in place. The court said the administrative stay "should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits" of the government's request.

In seeking a stay, the Justice Department told the appeals court that diplomatic negotiations were continuing in an effort to find an appropriate country to which the detainees could be sent.

Lawyers for the detainees opposed the request and said granting the stay would prolong the imprisonment of the Uighurs "by months and perhaps years." They said, "The government has delayed long enough."

In 2006, the United States allowed five Chinese Muslims released from Guantanamo to go to Albania. The US government has said it cannot return the Uighurs to China because they would face persecution there.

Many Muslim Uighurs, who are from Xinjiang in far western China, seek greater autonomy for the region and some want independence. Beijing has waged a campaign against what it calls their violent separatist activities.

The Uighurs had been living in a camp in Afghanistan during the US-led bombing campaign that began in October 2001. They fled into the mountains and were detained by Pakistani authorities, who handed them over to the United States.