More than seven years after the opening of Guantanamo Bay jail, a US judge Thursday for the first time acknowledged that some of its inmates were illegally detained and ordered their release.
In yet another blow to the administration of President George W. Bush, a federal judge ordered that five Algerians arrested in 2001 should be freed from the US military jail in southern Cuba, built to house "war on terror" suspects.
"The court finds that the government has failed to show by burden of proof" that the five had planned to go to Afghanistan to take up arms against US forces, judge Richard Leon said.
But Leon found that a sixth Guantanamo inmate, also from Algeria and arrested with the others in Bosnia-Hercegovina in 2001, had been held legally.
His landmark ruling, in the first of the so-called "habeas corpus" hearings, was simultaneously translated via a live telephone link to the six prisoners in Guantanamo.
The hearing was held after the Supreme Court on June 12 ruled that inmates in Guantanamo Bay had the right to know under what charges they were being held and what the evidence was against them.
Leon told the hearing that the sixth appeal brought by Belkacem Bensayah, 46, was denied as the government had "established by preponderance of evidence it is more likely than not that Mr Bensayah planned to go to Afghanistan and to facilitate the travel of any others to do the same.
"There can be no question that to facilitate the travel to Afghanistan to fight the United States constitutes direct support to Al-Qaeda," Leon said.
"Mr Bensayah is lawfully detained by the government as an enemy combatant."
The hearing had opened on November 6, and the judge found in favor of five others: Lakhdar Boumediene, 42, Mustafa Ait Idir, 38, Mohamed Nechla, 40, Hadji Boudella 43, and Saber Lahmar 39.
Government lawyers did not comment on the decision which came after a seven-day trial -- six days of which were behind closed doors -- nor did they say whether they intended to appeal.
Little of the evidence has trickled out from the case, except Leon revealed two of the men had been questioned and cross-examined by video-conference.
All six men were living in Bosnia, having dual Bosnian-Algerian nationalities, and were arrested at the end of 2001.
Initial charges of plotting to attack the US embassy in Sarajevo were dropped, but when their trial opened on November 6 they were accused of planning to head to Afghanistan to fight US forces.
Lawyer for the Guantanamo inmates, Robert Kirsch, told AFP he was "relieved and gratified" at the judge's ruling.
"This is a great day for the American justice," he said.
Leon, known for his conservative rulings, is the first judge to complete a habeas corpus hearing. More than 150 others are working their way through the courts.
Some 250 prisoners languish at the Guantanamo military base in southern Cuba and president-elect Barack Obama has already said he will keep his campaign promise to shut the prison down when he takes office in January.
Guantanamo Bay has tarnished the US reputation overseas, and human rights groups have long called for it to be closed.
Bush and his administration have also admitted that the prison should be shut, but there has been no agreement on what to do with the remaining inmates many of whom face torture and repression if returned home.
A political decision ordering the closure of the camp could end the long legal battles of the Guantanamo inmates, by deciding once and for all whether the president can hold indefinitely people suspected of terrorism even if they have not committed any acts of terror.
In that respect Leon's decision was a landmark one as he chose a broad definition of "enemy combatant" to include mere support for Al-Qaeda or Taliban militants and nonetheless concluded some detainees were illegally held.
