Guantánamo Bay Detainees' request to halt military hearings denied

A federal judge refused yesterday to stop military hearings that will decide if the Pentagon can continue to hold hundreds of terror suspects at a Navy base in Cuba. Judge Richard Leon rejected a request from lawyers for a group of Algerian detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to halt the administrative hearings that began last week. The hearings are to determine whether the prisoners are being held properly. More are expected this week in a process expected to take up to four months. Human-rights lawyers have argued the military panels could hurt detainees' chances to eventually win their freedom through the filing of separate lawsuits in federal court. [more]