GENEVA, March 13: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello on Thursday attacked a U.S. court ruling that Guantanamo Bay detainees were not protected by U.S. law, saying they must not be left in a judicial “black hole”.

A U.S. federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected a bid by Kuwaiti, Australian and British citizens captured in Afghanistan and held at the U.S. military base on Cuba to contest in U.S. courts the lawfulness and conditions of their confinement.

The unanimous decision, which has already been denounced by civil rights groups, held that U.S. courts lacked jurisdiction over the base.

Vieira de Mello told journalists: “I do not accept that there is any judicial black hole at Guantanamo... You cannot say that the law of a country that controls a territory does not apply to that territory. That I do not accept.”

The 16 detainees are among the approximately 600 suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters held at the U.S. navy base at Guantanamo Bay. They were captured in Afghanistan during the U.S.-led bombing launched after the Sept 11 attacks.

On Wednesday, Param Cumaraswamy, special investigator on judicial affairs for the UN Human Rights Commission, said the decision implied states could deny suspects their rights providing they were being detained in some other country.

“There is a new concept...of a territory where no law applies,” Vieira de Mello said.

While the struggle against terrorism must be carried out with “full respect for human rights”, the Brazilian UN veteran noted that states had the right to suspend temporarily some of these guarantees in emergencies.

“It is when policies become arbitrary that we enter dangerous territory,” he said. —Reuters