Former Gitmo Prisoners Seeking Religious Rights and Protection from Torture for Prisoners Who Remain

British nationals and former Guantanamo Bay detainees Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed and Jamal Al-Harith have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a lawsuit in which they seek religious rights and protection from torture for those still at the facility. In the petition, docketed Monday, the men argue that a lower court's dismissal of their claims should be reversed after Boumediene v. Bush, in which the Court ruled that that detainees have the right to file habeas corpus petitions in federal court. The men argue that the Court should hear the case because of the gravity of the issues addressed and the claimed error of the lower court:

Guantanamo continues to present numerous jurisprudential challenges to the judiciary. This case provides a critical opportunity for this Court to affirm strongly the guarantee to Guantanamo detainees of an irreducible minimum of human rights. It is essential for this Court to reverse the Court of Appeals' decision, which manifests indifference to religious abuse and torture and flouts the Guantanamo jurisprudence carefully developed and expounded by this Court.