A Los Angeles judge is to consider a petition presented by a coalition of civil rights advocates on behalf of more than 100 al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects held by US authorities in Guantanamo, Cuba.
Federal judge Howard Matz agreed to consider the allegations that the prisoners from the war in Afghanistan are being held in violation of the US Constitution and the Geneva Convention, according to the Los Angeles Times.
A hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday, according to the newpaper, noting that the petition calls for US authorities to produce the prisoners in court, explain the reasons for their detention and grant them guarantees of due-process.
Washington has classed the captives as illegal combatants, not prisoners of war, who therefore do not have rights under the 1949 Geneva Convention on the laws of war, provoking international concerns over their treatment.
The legal move is the first challenge to the Bush administration's decision to hold the prisoners from the war in Afghanistan at the Guantanamo base.
The petition raises some unusual legal issues, among them is the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles district court, geographically far from the Cuban base.
The court would also have to decide whether the suspects, a total 144 of whom have now been transferred to the base, were fighting for a government or a terrorist organization.
The petition, which was presented by a group of clergy, civil rights lawyers and journalism professors, among them former US attorney general Mr Ramsey Clark.
AFP