WASHINGTON, 15 March 2005 — A federal judge has barred the US government from transferring 13 Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo Bay out of concern for their safety.

The temporary restraining order requires the United States to keep the men at its military prison camp in Cuba until the court considers a motion that would require US authorities to give lawyers 30 days’ notice before moving the detainees.

The hearing, scheduled for March 24, will also assess the possibility the Yemeni detainees might be tortured or detained indefinitely if moved to Yemen or to another country.

Judge Rosemary Collyer of the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued the temporary injunction on Saturday after lawyers for the 13 Yemeni detainees filed an emergency petition to stop what they perceived as an imminent transfer of the men.

Mark Falkoff, one of the attorneys representing the Yemenis, said he was concerned his clients would be mistreated in the custody of another country.

Such a transfer would also sabotage a pending US court petition on the legality of the 13 Yemenis’ detention, which seeks their release, Falkoff said.

“If they were sent away from Guantanamo, our court case would essentially be moot, because the judge would no longer have jurisdiction over the case,” he told Reuters on Sunday.

The New York Times reported that the Pentagon is seeking to transfer hundreds of Guantanamo detainees to prisons in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Yemen in a bid to halve the number of prisoners at the Cuba base. A Pentagon spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the report.

Guantanamo Bay holds about 540 suspected Al-Qaeda and Taleban prisoners, mainly from the US-led Afghanistan war that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Pentagon said on March 7 that 211 prisoners had left the prison camp.

In her written opinion, Collyer said the Yemeni case raised questions about whether the United States is justified in transferring Guantanamo Bay prisoners to other countries, while requiring their continued detention.

“While the Supreme Court has granted (Guantanamo prisoners) a right of access to our court system, such a transfer would terminate that right...because US courts would no longer have control over their warden,” she wrote.

“The (Yemeni) petitioners...raise serious arguments that require more deliberative consideration concerning whether removing them from the (US) court’s jurisdiction while insisting on continued detention is within the province of the executive.”

Falkoff said he believed the United States is trying to set up “a new type of Guantanamo” in other countries where US courts carry no sway.

The temporary injunction, which lasts 10 days and can be extended, applies only to the 13 Yemeni men and does not prevent the US government from arranging transfers of other Guantanamo Bay detainees, Falkoff said.