A federal appeals court on Monday delayed for a month a hearing in the case of a U.S. citizen captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and held without charges ever since.
A panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond stayed all proceedings in the case before U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar in Norfolk until Sept. 27, when the appellate court would hand over jurisdiction to Doumar.
The judge had agreed last week to delay for one day, until Tuesday, the hearing on the continued imprisonment of Yaser Esam Hamdi.
The government promptly appealed, seeking more time. Federal officials said an agreement to release Hamdi that could send him back to Saudi Arabia, where he grew up, was imminent. But, the officials said, the sensitive nature of the case limited how quickly a settlement could be reached.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that enemy combatants may not be indefinitely detained. The ruling gave Hamdi the right to fight his detention in federal court, leading to the release negotiations.
