ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted: 12:15 pm
November 20, 2008

WASHINGTON – A federal judge has ordered the release of five Algerian terror suspects who have been held without charges almost seven years at Guantanamo Bay.

In the first civilian court ruling for terror suspects challenging their detention, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said Thursday that the five men could not be held indefinitely as enemy combatants.

He says the military can continue to detain one of the Algerians.

One of the men to be released is Lakhdar Boumediene, whose landmark Supreme Court case last summer gave the Guantanamo detainees the right to challenge their imprisonment.

The government had accused all six of the men of planning to travel to Afghanistan to join al-Qaida.