A federal appeals court has rejected the military’s designation of a Guantanamo detainee as an enemy combatant in the first such decision of its kind.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned as “invalid” a military tribunal’s conclusion that prisoner Huzaifa Parhat is an enemy combatant.

The court directed the Pentagon to either release or transfer Parhat or to hold a new tribunal hearing “consistent with the court’s opinion.”

The decision is the first time a court has overruled a finding by the so-called status review tribunals, the Pentagon’s panel of military officers that determine whether a captive at Guantanamo meets the definition of “enemy combatant.”

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