The treatment of detainees held by the United States is coming under increasing scrutiny by the international community and a US federal judge.
Los Angeles district court judge A. Howard Matz will hear a petition filed by a group of Los Angeles clergy, journalism professors and civil rights attorneys, including former US attorney general Mr Ramsey Clark.
The first court challenge of the detention of al-Qaeda suspects at the Guantanamo Bay naval base demands that the US government bring the suspects before a court and define the charges against them.
In The Netherlands, Amnesty International and the International Committee of the Red Cross have demanded the detainees be given prisoner-of-war status subject to the Geneva Conventions. Sweden has called for fair treatment for a Swedish captive.
Britain's Mr Tony Blair tried to defuse accusations of torture at the base, saying through a spokesman yesterday that three Britons among the detainees say they have no complaints about their treatment.
The number of detainees at the base in Cuba has risen to 158 with yesterday's arrival of 14 injured fighters on stretchers, including two amputees and three with infections requiring surgery.
The military C-141 cargo plane was the sixth flight bringing detainees from the US base at Kandahar in Afghanistan, where 218 detainees remain. The 14 prisoners were carried from the aircraft on stretchers by Marines in yellow rubber gloves and turquoise surgical masks.
The Marines seemed to frisk the captives before carrying them to a bus. The detainees wore blacked-out goggles and orange jumpsuits, and appeared to have their arms strapped to their bodies.
US officials say stringent security is needed because some captives have threatened to kill their American guards.
tribunals.
AP