Munaf Fears Torture If Turned To Iraqi Authorities

Munaf, detained by multinational forces in Iraq for alleged crimes committed on Iraqi soil, was sentenced to death by hanging by an Iraqi court for the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq in May 2005.

 

Munaf’s lawyer Jonathan Hafetz will plead before the Supreme Court to hand over the case to a U.S. court. Lawyers say the U.S. government is "profoundly mistaken" in its argument that the United States has no authority in the matter.

 

The Bush administration claims that U.S. courts lack jurisdiction to review the cases of the two men because they are being held not by the U.S. government, but by a coalition of 27 countries, including the United States, that participate in the multinational force in Iraq under a United Nations security resolution.

 

Joseph Margulies of Northwestern University Law School, who will argue the case at the high court, writes, "Munaf is a Sunni Muslim who faces a grave risk of torture if transferred."