WASHINGTON, June 24: A US appeals court has announced that it has overturned the Defence Department’s classification of a Guantanamo Bay detainee as an enemy combatant.

In the first Guantanamo Bay case to be reviewed, the court ruled in favour of Huzaifa Parhat, a Chinese Muslim known as a Uighur, undermining the basis for his more than six years in detention.

The appeals court directed the US military to release Parhat, to transfer him or to hold a new proceeding promptly in light of the appeals court’s ruling.

The court also specified that Parhat could petition a federal judge seeking his immediate release in light of the Supreme Court’s June 12 decision giving that right to all the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.

Parhat never fought against the United States and the government concedes there’s no evidence he ever intended to. He has been held for six years because he is linked to a Chinese separatist group that the military says has some ties to the Al Qaeda network.

Government attorneys say he can be held under the law authorising military force against anyone who “planned, authorised, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks” of 2001.

The appeals court issued only a one-paragraph notice of its decision, saying that the ruling was made on Friday and that it contains classified information. A version of the ruling that will be available for public release is being prepared, the appeals court said.

Parhat is one of several Uighurs being held at Guantanamo Bay as suspected terrorists.

Their case has become a diplomatic and legal headache for the US, which has tried to find a country willing to accept the Uighurs even as it defended its decision to hold them as enemy combatants.—AP