By Ramesh Mathew
Staff Reporter

The Obama administration will decide by November 16 whether to try Guantanamo detainees in military or civilian courts, US Attorney General Eric Holder said in Doha yesterday.
“We will by November 16 make the determination as to who can be tried in the reformed military commissions, who can be tried in our article 3 federal courts,” Holder said.
The US attorney general is in Qatar attending the sixth Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity.
Holder also told reporters that the US government was working to meet its deadline to close the Guantanamo detention facility by January next year.
 “We believe that Guantanamo has strained our alliances overseas,” said Holder. Obama’s pledge to shut down the prison is a signal of “the determination of this administration to change course”.
He said each case of the detainees was being closely monitored and reviewed.
Holder said the Obama administration had already arrived at a decision on the fate of many detainees. “The prison in Guantanamo Bay had held 245 detainees when Obama took office in January and the number now has dropped to about 220. Of those, about 60 or so may face prosecution while another 80 are awaiting their release.”
He said that among those facing prosecution included some of those who were charged with the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Also in detention were those facing the trial in the 9/11 attacks.
He said that some crucial decisions on the fate of the detainees could be expected by November 16. “Some of them could be sent to other jails and others may be moved to other countries on the basis of the reports received from the body monitoring the whole process.”
Answering questions at a round table, organised by the Public Affairs Section of US embassy, Holder said that America had made remarkable strides in fighting corruption at different levels. “In Iraq, we are working closely with our friends to make the country free of corrupt elements,” he said.
Holder praised Qatar government’s initiatives to stamp out corruption.
“I am in regular contact with the Attorney General HE Ali bin Futais al-Marri and we regularly exchange views on a wide range of issues,” he said. “Sometimes, he takes my advice on some issues while on other occasions, I make it a point to seek his opinions.”
Terming Qatar as a close ally of the US in initiating steps to strengthen the judiciary, Holder said that co-operation between Qatar and the US had helped strengthen the law-enforcement machinery in both the countries.