The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Friday urged the Trump administration to immediately transfer a U.S. citizen accused of fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) from military detention to the federal court system.
“If the reports about the U.S. citizen are accurate, his ongoing military detention is unlawful as a matter of domestic law, and his constitutional rights to habeas corpus and to a lawyer must be respected,” ACLU executive director Anthony Romero wrote in a letter Friday to Defense Secretary James Mattis and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“If the government has legitimate grounds to suspect the citizen fought with ISIS, he should immediately be transferred to the federal criminal justice system for criminal charges. On no account should the Defense Department resurrect the past policy of ‘enemy combatant’ detention of U.S. citizens, which proved to be a legal and moral failure.”
On Sept. 14, the Pentagon confirmed it is detaining a U.S. citizen captured on the battlefield fighting for ISIS. – READ MORE
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