The court's refusal to hear the cases lends credence to the circuit court's decision to rely upon Munaf v. Green [Duke Law backgrounder; JURIST report] in affirming the government's decision over that of a federal judge. Munaf granted the government the authority to transfer detainees to the country where their crimes are alleged to have been committed as a means by which to show deference to that country's ability to enforce its laws. A federal judge ordered [JURIST report] Mohammed's release in November. Judge Gladys Kessler of the US District Court for the District of Columbia directed the government to "take all necessary and appropriate steps to facilitate [Fari Saeed's] release forthwith." The order resulted from a civil action brought against the US government for unlawfully detaining him since 2002.

Last month, US officials charged [press release] Asllani with providing support to terrorists and conspiring to murder and harm people abroad. He was arrested by Kosovo law enforcement, though released shortly thereafter and required only to report to police twice weekly [Reuters report]. If extradited and convicted, Asllani faced a maximum of 40 years imprisonment for his alleged role in a 2009 attempt to attack military personnel in Quantico, Virginia.

The PMOI was notified of the Secretary's decision and permitted access to the unclassified portion of the record only after the decision was final. And even though the PMOI was given the opportunity to include in the record its own evidence supporting delisting, it had no opportunity to rebut the unclassified portion of the record the Secretary was compiling—an omission, the PMOI argues, that deprived it of the due process protections detailed in our previous decisions.

In 2008, the European Court of First Instance annulled a decision by the EU [JURIST] to place the PMOI on a list of terrorist groups. That decision followed an order by the UK Parliament [JURIST report] to remove the PMOI from a British list of terrorist groups. PMOI is Iran's main political opposition organization and part of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) [group website], an umbrella coalition of Iranian opposition groups. The PMOI has been at odds with the Iranian government since it chose to support Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] during the 1980s.

Throughout these proceedings, the accused has been detained on the basis of repeated findings that his detention is necessary to ensure his appearance at trial, and that there exists "the real possibility that the Court is likely to be unable to ensure the Accused's presence at trial if he is released" - a finding referred to by this Chamber in an earlier appeal on realease [sic]. In its Decision on Release, the Chamber did not purport to conclude that the risk of flight has abated or indeed address risk of flight at all. Thus, the previous findings regarding the possibility of flight are undisputed and undiminished.

Lubanga is accused of war crimes for allegedly recruiting child soldiers to fight in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2002-2003. His trial began in January 2009 but was halted soon after when one of the child witnesses recanted his testimony [JURIST report] that Lubanga had recruited him for the militia. The prosecution concluded its case [JURIST report] last July after presenting 22 weeks of testimony. Lubanga maintains he is innocent [JURIST report] of the charges against him. He became the first war crimes defendant to appear before the ICC, formed in 2002, after he was taken into custody [JURIST report] in March 2006.