Judge and Fox News contributor Andrew Napolitano sharply disagreed with President Trump and others who have called for the suspect in Tuesday’s terror attack in Manhattan to be sent to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
Speaking on Fox News’s “Outnumbered,” Napolitano said he “profoundly disagree[s]” with the president and others such as Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who have called for 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov to be sent to the military detention facility in Cuba.
“About Gitmo,” Napolitano said Wednesday, “this person, as horrific as he is, is a lawful American resident. He has the same rights, except for voting and running for office, as the rest of us.”
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Eight people were killed and several more were injured when police say Saipov rammed a rented Home Depot truck into a crowd of pedestrians and a school bus. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Wednesday that there was no indication that Saipov was working with others in his attack.
When asked on Wednesday if he would consider sending the suspect to Guantanamo Bay, President Trump said he “certainly” would.
“I would certainly consider that, yes,” Trump said. “Send him to Gitmo.”
Graham said during a press conference Wednesday that Saipov should be treated as a combatant of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“There’s ample evidence to suggest that these attacks were motivated by radical Islamic thought, that he killed in the name of radical Islam and that he is expressing his allegiance to ISIS, that he is acting as a soldier of the caliphate — and we should treat him as a soldier of the caliphate,” Graham said.
Napolitano, who was a New Jersey Superior Court judge from 1987 to 1995, said that sending a lawful resident such as Saipov to a military prison would be “inhumane.”
“There is simply no provision for terminating his Constitutional rights by putting him in the hands of the military and taking him to Gitmo,” Napolitano said. “If they send him to Cuba, it will be unfair, unlawful and unconstitutional.”
The FBI has taken over the investigations of the attack.