Good result; expect more to follow: “We’re pleased with the court’s ruling that these 2 individuals are being lawfully detained as enemy combatants.”

From The New York Times:

A federal judge in Washington ruled Tuesday that the government was properly holding two Guantánamo detainees as enemy combatants, the first clear-cut victories for the Bush administration in what are expected to be more than 200 similar cases.

The ruling by a federal district judge, Richard J. Leon, followed his decision last month in a separate case declaring that five Algerians had been held unlawfully at the detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for nearly seven years and ordering their release.

That case had been the only one to reach a full court hearing after a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court in June that said Guantánamo detainees have a constitutional right to challenge their detention in habeas corpus cases.

The habeas rulings are being watched carefully, in part because decisions approving the holding of Guantánamo detainees could be used by the Obama administration as a legal justification to continue to hold some of them even if the prison in Cuba is closed.

Judge Leon said that the Tunisian, Hisham Sliti, was a Qaeda recruit in Afghanistan who attended a military training camp and had ties to terrorists. He rejected Mr. Sliti’s explanation of the reasons for his travels, saying his “story about traveling to Afghanistan to kick a longstanding drug habit and find a wife is not credible.”

In the case of the Yemeni, Moath Hamza Ahmed al Alwi, Judge Leon said it was unnecessary to rule on a government claim that he had been a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. He ruled that there was no evidence that Mr. Alwi ever fought American forces, but said his close ties to Taliban and Qaeda forces were sufficient to establish that he was an enemy combatant.

A spokesman for the Justice Department, Dean Boyd, said, “We’re pleased with the court’s ruling that these two individuals are being lawfully detained as enemy combatants.”