Top UK court rejects bid to free US-held detainee

Topics: From the Wires,

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Supreme Court has quashed a bid by a 30-year-old Pakistani man held by the U.S. in Afghanistan to force U.K. authorities to secure his release.

Yunus Rahmatullah was captured by British forces in Iraq in 2004 and handed over to the Americans, who sent him to Afghanistan.

A lower court ordered Britain to seek Rahmatullah’s release on the grounds that under international law it was responsible for his care.

But the order was canceled after U.S. officials refused to cooperate.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that both the original order and the decision to scrap it had been legal. The judges said it was clear U.S. authorities “felt they were holding Mr. Rahmatullah lawfully and were not willing to relinquish control of his detention to the U.K.”

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