WASHINGTON, April 17: The US supreme court on Monday refused to hear an appeal by two Chinese ethnic Uighur Muslims held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, despite an acknowledgement by US officials that the detainees are not ‘war on terror’ suspects.

The two men, who have been held since July 2002 at the US-run detention centre which houses nearly 500 inmates, had hoped the US high court would order their release.

But the supreme court declined to consider the appeal until a lower court completes its review of the case.

The US military conceded last year that the two detained men, Abu Bakker Qassim and Adel Abdu al Hakim, had no ties to the ‘war on terror’. Their attorney has said that the men were mistakenly swept up during roundups of suspected terrorists in Pakistan.

But US authorities have said they cannot return the men to China, where they could face ‘persecution’, nor can they allow them to go free in the US.

Prosecutors have said that the two inmates would be released when an appropriate country of return is located.—AFP