GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba – U.S. military review panels have decided not to release 10 Guantanamo Bay (search) detainees, concluding they were properly classified as "enemy combatants," a military official said Saturday.
The decision brought to 14 the number of cases decided by the panels, said Navy Cmdr. Katy Wright, a spokeswoman at the Pentagon. The panels decided to hold all 14.
The military so far has reviewed the cases of 31 detainees, including that of a 30-year-old prisoner on Saturday who allegedly served as a bodyguard for Usama bin Laden (search). All 585 G not release details of the concluded cases, including when the detainees went before the review panels, their names, nationalities or the circumstances surrounding their capture.
In Saturday's case, the prisoner, whose name and nationality were not released, received training in explosives at Al Qaeda's (search) al-Farouq training camp in Afghanistan, Wright said.
He allegedly participated in military operations against U.S.-led coalition forces and was caught trying to cross into Pakistan. The prisoner, who has been held at Guantanamo for 33 months, called no witnesses, Wright said.
Human rights lawyers have criticized the review hearings, saying they fail to satisfy a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that prisoners may contest their detention in U.S. civilian courts. Some have been held since the detention mission began in January 2002.
The review tribunals are separate from military commissions, where some prisoners will be tried on war crimes conspiracy and other charges. Pretrial hearings for the commissions are to begin Tuesday.
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