04 July 2004	Sunday	15 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

WASHINGTON, July 3: Lawyers filed habeas corpus petitions in a US federal court here on Friday demanding the immediate release of nine war-on-terror detainees being held at a US Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the legal group representing them said.

"The papers assert that the petitioners confinement lacks any legal basis, and ask that they be released forthwith," the Center for Constitutional Rights said in a statement.

The petitions charge that the government has "exceeded the constitutional authority of the executive" and ask the court to "declare that the prolonged, indefinite, and restrictive detention of petitioner(s) is arbitrary and unlawful" under the US constitution and international law, it said.

The action came just days after the US Supreme Court affirmed the right of detainees at Guantanamo to challenge their detention in US courts.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, a non-profit legal advocacy group, represents 53 of the 595 detainees at Guantanamo.

Together with other attorneys representing Guantanamo detainees, it filed five petitions in US federal court in Washington on behalf of nine detainees who were seized in Pakistan, Gambia and Afghanistan.

They were British nationals Moazzem Begg and Feroz Abbasi; Murat Kurnaz, a Turk who had German residency; French nationals Murad Benchallali, Nizar Sassi and Ridouane Khalid; Jamil El-Banna, a Palestinian residing in the United Kingdom; Bisher Al-Rawi, an Iraqi; and Omar Khadr, a Canadian who was 15 years old when he was seized in Afghanistan.

The group sent a letter to US Defence Secretary on Thursday demanding access to their clients inGuantanamo. It said it was ready to organize a delegation to provide legal counsel to the other detainees. -AFP