WASHINGTON, 28 August 2004 — A judge may delay a hearing for a US citizen jailed without charge since his capture allegedly fighting with Taleban forces in Afghanistan, as prosecutors said Yasser Hamdi may soon go to Saudi Arabia.
Prosecutors requested Thursday a seven-day delay for the hearing set for Monday in US District Court in Virginia, outside Washington, saying they were close to a deal with Hamdi’s attorneys on his fate.
Hamdi, who was born in Louisiana and raised in Saudi Arabia, was designated an “enemy combatant” and denied constitutional rights due a US citizen after US troops captured him in Afghanistan in 2001.
Judge Robert Doumar was expected to issue a decision yesterday since the hearing is on Monday, a court spokesman said.
The court has ordered that Hamdi, held in solitary confinement in a South Carolina naval brig, attend Monday’s hearing.
