Judge blocks U.S. from sending American to Saudi Arabia

WASHINGTON — A federal judge Thursday blocked the government from transferring an American citizen accused of fighting with Islamic State militants to Saudi Arabia, meaning he will stay for now in a U.S. military detention facility in Iraq.

The Trump administration had wanted to send to Saudi Arabia the U.S. citizen who was captured on the battlefield in Syria last fall and is suspected of supporting Islamic State.

Lawyers for the American, identified only as John Doe in court papers, had argued that to do so would violate his constitutional rights and asked a federal judge to order the government either to charge him with a crime or to release him from U.S. military custody in Iraq.

During a court hearing Thursday morning, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan seemed skeptical of government arguments that the transfer should be approved quickly.

“I have a U.S. citizen here that has rights that have to be considered carefully,” Chutkan said, adding that the right to challenge detention by the government is the “bedrock of our legal system.”

James Burnham, senior counsel at the Justice Department, argued that handing over the suspect would amount to a release from U.S. custody, and therefore would end his legal case in U.S. courts.

“It’s not release if you’re simply giving him over to another jailer,” Chutkan told him.

The strange case of the mystery American could set new legal and diplomatic boundaries for the U.S. war on terrorism.

Although dozens of Americans were charged and convicted of seeking to join or providing material support to terrorist groups in recent years, only a handful were designated enemy combatants. Courts ruled they still had their rights as U.S. citizens.

In September, the man surrendered to a Kurdish militia backed by the United States and was delivered to the U.S. military, which declared him an enemy combatant and put him in a military prison in Iraq.

U.S. authorities allege that the man supported Islamic State but they have been unable to produce enough evidence to charge him with a crime. He said that he went to Syria in early 2015 to report on the militants as a freelance journalist, and then was kidnapped by them.

Unwilling to release him, the government had told the court that it plans to transfer the prisoner to a third country.

Chutkan ruled that the government cannot transfer him without a subsequent order from the court.

In a court filing, the government called it “imperative that the transfer occur quickly and smoothly.” Blocking the transfer would “undermine the U.S. credibility with an important foreign partner,” it added.

A separate court filing identified the country as Saudi Arabia, and The New York Times has reported that the man holds U.S. and Saudi citizenship.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which fought in court to gain access to the detainee while he was being held in secret last year, argued that the government cannot deliver a U.S. citizen to another country.

The ACLU says the man tried to escape from Islamic State and denies fighting alongside the militants.