WASHINGTON, July 8: Prisoners held at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will get a hearing in a military court to determine their status as early as next week but they will not be allowed lawyers and military officers representing them need not have legal training
, US officials said on Wednesday.
The move followed last week's US Supreme Court decision that foreign terrorism suspects held at the US naval base in Cuba could challenge their confinements in US courts.
Pentagon officials told reporters on Wednesday that each of the 595 prisoners held at Guantanamo would be notified by July 17 that they could contest their status as an "unlawful enemy combatant" - the classification given to them rather than prisoner of war. They will also be given notice of the basis for their detention, officials said.
But the prisoners can challenge their detention only in the newly-created tribunal of three military officers and not in a civil court. The prisoners cannot have the lawyer of their choice.
Instead the Pentagon will assign a military officer to represent each prisoner but the officers representing the prisoners need not have legal training, US officials said. Alex Arriaga, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International, said the Bush administration was "going out of its way to circumvent" the Supreme Court decision rather than implementing it.
