'Bush can hold terror suspect indefinitely'

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that President George W Bush has the power to keep a terrorist suspect jailed indefinitely, but that the detainee has the right to challenge his detention as an “enemy combatant.”

The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, took up the case of Ali Al-Marri, the only “war on terror” suspect arrested on US soil, and reversed a June 2007 decision by a lower court denying Bush the power to keep the suspect jailed indefinitely and ordering his release.

By a 5-4 decision, the Richmond court, reputedly one of the most conservative in the country, said: “if the government’s allegations about Al-Marri are true, Congress has empowered the president to detain him as an enemy combatant.”