Tribunals are dealt another legal setback

Dismissal rulings in two Guantanamo cases raise questions about the military's jurisdiction over detainees.

By Carol J. Williams and Julian E. Barnes, Times Staff Writers
June 5, 2007

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA — Military judges threw out war-crimes cases Monday against the only detainees here who have been indicted, in rulings that suggest the hastily reassembled military tribunals have no jurisdiction over any of Guantanamo's 380 prisoners.

In separate hearings, an Army colonel and a Navy captain granted motions to dismiss the cases because the 2006 Military Commissions Act that Congress passed last year gave the tribunals jurisdiction only over "unlawful alien enemy combatants."