U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Munaf Case On March 25

The Court will decide on whether military officials have the power to seize and detain a U.S. citizen, without judicial review, based on their claim that they are "agents" of a multinational entity. The Court will also decide on whether those officials then have free rein to hand over an American to another government likely to torture and kill him, according to a press release of the Brennan Center for Justice.

 

The Brennan Center for Justice, along with the MacArthur Center for Justice, filed a brief with the Supreme Court seeking judicial review and a writ of habeas corpus for Mohammad Munaf and Shawqi Omar, two U.S. citizens detained in Iraq and held by U.S. personnel for the past two to three years.

 

"The government here is asking for a free pass to infringe the core liberties of U.S. citizens," said Aziz Huq, director of the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security project. 

 

Shawqi Omar is an American citizen who was arrested by U.S. forces in Iraq in 2004, transferred between U.S. bases in the Middle East and tortured.  The government argued that because the Iraq war was under the banner of the United Nations, U.S. courts did not have jurisdiction to rule on the case. 

 

Mohammad Munaf is being held by U.S. forces in Iraq and was tried and convicted by an Iraqi court for his alleged role in a kidnap-for-hire case.  Munaf will be executed if U.S. forces turn him over to the Iraqi government.  The U.S. government contends U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction in this matter.

 

The Brennan Center filed habeas corpus petitions for Omar and Munaf in 2005 and 2006 respectively.  Until January 2008, the month after the Supreme Court decided to hear the case, Omar and Munaf were denied access to their American counsel.  The government still argues that the cases should be dismissed.