MIAMI (AP) — Officials have rescinded a new rule requiring U.S. military judges presiding over tribunals at Guantanamo Bay to relocate to the base in Cuba.
The rule prompted the judge in the Sept. 11 terrorism case earlier this week to order an immediate halt to proceedings unless it was rescinded.
The memo rescinding the rule was released by the Pentagon on Friday.
The Defense Department in January had ordered the judges to relocate after an official said it would help speed up litigation in the three active prosecutions by military commissions of prisoners at the base.
That prompted lawyers for the five prisoners charged in the Sept. 11 attacks and for another charged in the USS Cole bombing to seek dismissal of the charges for improperly interfering in the death-penalty cases.
