An Iranian detainee, the 6th prisoner held at the US naval military base prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, refused on August 6 to appear at a US military review hearing which is designated to determine whether he is an "enemy combatants" or should be set free.

The military said the man, 25, was a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan. An military officer, who was assigned as the prisoner's "personal representative," said the Iranian told him that he didn't want to participate in the hearing, media reports said.

The detainee did not give a reason for his refusal, he said.

The US military held the open hearing without the presence of the Iranian prisoner, who had claimed that he was a cook and driver and wasn't involved in combat.

Eleven hearings, called Combatant Status Review Tribunals, have been held since the process started last Friday to determine whether the approximately 585 prisoners held at Guantanamo should still be held as "enemy combatants" or should be set free.

The other five detainees who have also refused to appear before the review tribunals included three Yemenis, one Saudi and one Moroccan.

The hearings were arranged after the US Supreme Court ruled in June that the Guantanamo prisoners have the right to contest their detention in the US courts. They are separate from military commissions that are being set up to try some detainees there.

All the detainees from about 42 countries held at Guantanamo, mostly captured during the US-led war in Afghanistan, have been deemed "enemy combatants" and not prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions, which would grant them additional legal rights. Most of them have been held there without charges or access to a lawyer for about two and a half years.

Source: Xinhua