Lawyers for Mohamed Jawad, a detainee who has been held at Guantanamo since he was a teenager, renewed their efforts to have him freed, calling for his repatriation to Afghanistan.
"The petitioner is, by the admission of the government, being held illegally and must be released regardless of any pending investigation," his lawyers said in documents filed Tuesday before federal judge Ellen Huvelle.
Huvelle, who is overseeing a challenge to Jawad's detention at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last week criticized the government's case against the Afghan as "riddled with holes."
Justice Department lawyers said Friday they would no longer consider Jawad an "enemy combatant" -- the status given to all the prisoners at Guantanamo that constitutes the basis of their detention at the facility.
They also said they would not continue to oppose his lawyers' challenge to his detention at Guantanamo, but told the court they would hold Jawad while "expediting" a criminal investigation against him.
The investigation could form the basis for federal charges in a US court, though the Justice Department has stressed that no decision has been made to proceed with a US trial.
Only one Guantanamo detainee, Tanzanian national Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, has been transferred from the US naval base to the United States for trial.
Ghailani was flown to New York in June, where he faces criminal charges for the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Government lawyers had asked Huvelle for "several weeks" to allow them to finish their investigation of Jawad, whose lawyers say he was just 12 at the time of his arrest, though the Pentagon says he was 16 or 17.
Jawad's lawyers said the request was "nonsensical" and called on the court to "disregard" it.
"After seven years, respondents have had ample time to prepare petitioner's records," his attorneys wrote, adding that Afghanistan has indicated it is willing to repatriate Jawad and pay the costs associated with his transfer.
In a written order issued shortly after Jawad's lawyers filed their petition, Huvelle said she would give the government 24 hours to explain in writing how it intends to proceed and fixed a hearing on the issue for Thursday morning.
