WASHINGTON, June 17: A US court on Tuesday ruled the Justice Department could keep secret the identity of suspects detained after the Sept 11, 2001, terror attacks.
The federal appeals court in Washington had been petitioned by some 20 civil liberty groups, who invoked the Freedom of Information Act that permits the publication of certain government documents.
“We conclude that the government was entitled to withhold ... the names of INS detainees and those detained as material witnesses in the course of the post-Sept 11 investigation,” the appeals court ruled, in reference to people detained by the INS.
The court also said the government was entitled to withhold the dates and locations of the arrest, detention and release of all detainees, including those charged with federal crimes, as well as the names of counsel for detainees.
Hundreds of people, mainly Muslims, were arrested and held following the attacks, when militants from the al-Qaeda network hijacked four airliners and slammed them into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon military headquarters outside Washington, and a field in Pennsylvania, killing more than 3,000 people.
Most of those held were detained under immigration regulations. Most have now either been released or deported from the United States.
The court of appeal said its decision was in line with the Constitution’s First Amendment which forbids all restrictions to freedom of speech and information of the media.
Two out of three of the presiding judges ruled in favor of the Justice Department, which had cited national security reasons for opposing the publication of information on the arrests.
The civil rights groups had asked for the names of those secretly arrested and held to be published, as well as the names of the attorneys representing them, the places where they had been arrested and imprisoned, and reasons given by the authorities for the arrests.
The civil liberties organizations had charged that the secret arrest of suspects was illegal.
Tuesday’s decision followed an appeal on August 15, 2002, by the Justice Department of an earlier court decision that had authorized the publication of the information.—AFP