LOCAL HEROES:

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LOCAL HEROES: FEDERAL JUDGE TAKES OPPOSITE STAND

WILLIAM GLABERSON - In what appears to be the first ruling of its kind,
a federal judge has barred the Bush administration from sending a
Guantánamo detainee to his home country, where he claims he would face
torture, according to an order unsealed yesterday in Washington. The
judge, Gladys Kessler of United States District Court for the District
of Columbia, issued an injunction prohibiting the planned transfer of
the detainee to Tunisia, which has been criticized by American and
international officials for human rights abuses.

Saying that the detainee, Mohammed Rahman, claimed that such a transfer
would amount to a death sentence, Judge Kessler said "it would be a
profound miscarriage of justice" if she allowed the government to send
him to Tunisia.

"At that point, the damage would have been done," she wrote, adding that
Mr. Rahman faced a 20-year sentence after a conviction at a terrorism
trial the Tunisian government held while he was at Guantánamo.

Advocates for detainees and human rights groups said the ruling was an
important development in the legal battle over Guantánamo. They said it
could reshape what have been frequent legal conflicts over
administration plans to send detainees to countries where they say they
face torture or mistreatment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/washington/10gitmo.html?ref=washington

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