Man's Transfer to Iraq Death Row Delayed

http://www.newsday.com/ ^ | October 27, 2006 | AP

[teldon30]

WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court said Friday that the military may not turn an American citizen over to Iraqi officials to face the death penalty until the Supreme Court can hear his case. The Supreme Court's decision in the case will help decide what rights American citizens have when detained by U.S. military forces overseas. Mohammad Munaf was convicted and sentenced to death by an Iraqi judge this month on charges he helped in the 2005 kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Baghdad. Munaf, who was born in Iraq and became an American citizen in 2000, asked a U.S. judge not to let the military transfer him. He claimed his trial was flawed and his confession was coerced. Those would normally be grounds for American citizens to challenge their imprisonment. But U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said this month that he had no authority to intervene because Munaf was being held by coalition military forces, not by the U.S. military alone. The U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit also declined to step in but said Friday that the military must give Munaf 10 days to appeal to the Supreme Court and wait for the court to rule before transferring him.

[kingu]

Does this mean that US Citizens now get to appeal to the SCOTUS every time they're convicted by a Mexican court? No?

What makes this so different? Nothing. The American courts have no standing in a foreign court of law. The military should simply turn over the man unless ordered by their chain of command to do otherwise - not by a lawyer.

[greasepaint]

Bush should just pardon the guy.

then he could be arrested by the Iraquis.

[ikka]

Is he an unlawful combatant or not?

[teldon30]

I'm not really sure what his status is....