By FNC Supreme Court Reporter Shannon Bream

In front of a packed courtroom, US District Court Judge Richard Leon delivered the news a group of Algerian men have been hoping to hear for nearly seven years.  The government was ordered to release five of the six men who challenged their detention at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.  The men were initially picked up in Bosnia in late 2001, accused of plotting to bomb the US Embassy there.  Since January 2002, they have been held at Guantanamo Bay.  Their case dragged on for years, eventually making it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.  The detainees scored a major victory there in June, when the Supreme Court ruled they could challenge their detention under a habeas corpus proceeding.  Theirs was the test case, and today five of the six won again.  The vast majority of the proceedings over the last two weeks were held behind closed doors due to the national security implications of presenting classified information.  In the end, Judge Leon ruled that government lawyers failed in their burden to prove the men meet the definition of “enemy combatant” and could no longer hold them.  The sixth man, Belkacem Bensayah, will remain in custody at Guantanamo Bay.  Judge Leon held there was sufficient evidence to prove his link to Al Qaeda.  The judge made the unusual move of urging government lawyers not to appeal his ruling, but to instead set the five men free.  However, the Department of Justice has indicated it will appeal the ruling.  If the men eventually win actual release, their attorney says they want to return to Bosnia.  The government there has indicated it will accept them.

Today’s ruling is very fact-specific and it’s unclear how other detainees may endeavor to use it to win their own release.  Of course, many speculate it won’t matter under an Obama administration, given his indications that he may close Guantanamo Bay altogether.