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THE US government today contested the right of detainees held at a naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to be represented by a lawyer before tribunals to determine whether they were really "enemy combatants" when they were captured. The US Supreme Court ruled in June that the Defence Department had failed to give the inmates, most of whom were detained during the Afghanistan war in 2001, their full rights. In response, special tribunals began July 29 to determine whether the detainees really were "enemy combatants" when they were captured. However, in a 26-page document released today, US federal prosecutors stated their opposition to a request by lawyers representing several dozen Guantanamo detainees for the right to talk to their clients. The June Supreme Court ruling does not explicitly state whether the detainees could be represented by a lawyer. The ruling "says nothing at all" to suggest that the inmates have "a right to counsel, much less a right to the type of unrestricted access to counsel they seek, in order to pursue their case", according to the brief released by the government. No "principle of law or reason entitles alien enemy combatants detained on a military base outside the sovereign territory of the United States to define the terms of their access to counsel", the brief read. [more]