A judge ruled Thursday that one of the youngest detainees brought to Guantanamo Bay is being held illegally and must be released - 6½ years after the detainee from Afghanistan says he was tortured into confessing at age 12.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle's order does not end the case of Mohammed Jawad, however. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ian Gershengorn told the judge that as the State Department negotiates with the detainee's home country for his return next month, the Justice Department also is pursuing a criminal investigation.

Gershengorn said Attorney General Eric Holder has not yet decided whether to indict Jawad, who allegedly threw a grenade that wounded two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter in December 2002. That means it's possible he could be brought to the United States for a criminal trial.

Huvelle said she had no authority to prevent an indictment. But she encouraged prosecutors to think hard about problems with the case, including Jawad's mental competency to stand trial and the fact that someone arrested as a juvenile has already been incarcerated so long. She told the Justice Department attorneys she would be happy to discuss her concerns directly with the attorney general if he's interested.

"After this horrible, long, tortured history, I hope the government will succeed in getting him back home," she said, adding that Jawad was not given the humane treatment of a juvenile arrested in the United States. "Enough has been imposed on this young man to date."

http://www.kirotv.com/politics/20217484/detail.html

meanwhile .....

Britain's national security and the lives of its citizens will be put at risk if the High Court publishes its findings on what happened to former terror detainee Binyam Mohamed at the hands of the CIA.

That was the effect of letters from the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and CIA officials, two judges were told in London yesterday.

The letters warned that the US, even under the new Obama administration, will review its intelligence-sharing agreement with the UK if the court releases seven brief paragraphs about Mr Mohamed's treatment into the public domain. They are central to the former Guantanamo Bay detainee's claim that he was subjected to torture with the consent of UK authorities.

The hearing was adjourned after Lord Justice Thomas, who noted that the paragraphs themselves did not pose any threat to national security, ordered a transcript of the hearing to be given to the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who lawyers said had assessed the US threat as having a "high risk threshold".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/torture-report-a-security-risk-1764760.html