US Senate passes Guantanamo deal

WASHINGTON - The US Senate has voted to let terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison appeal their verdicts by military tribunals to federal courts, but sustained its earlier vote to otherwise curb their access to federal court protections.

Senators passed a bipartisan compromise 84-14 to give inmates at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a chance to appeal their convictions by US military tribunals.

Last week, the Senate voted 49-42 to deny the enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay the right to go to federal court to challenge their detention, but some lawmakers said that went too far and some court review was essential.

Lawmakers said the limits on Guantanamo Bay inmates' use of the courts was part of a package to assert congressional oversight of the treatment of detainees and to restore the US image in the wake of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and elsewhere.

The Guantanamo amendment was added to a bill authorizing defence policies that also had language to bar torture and require humane treatment of detainees in US custody in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.

- REUTERS