A US federal court has ruled that the government can continue to suppress transcripts of former CIA prisoners that have been tortured at US detention facilities.

The ruling came in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to obtain transcripts from the Defense Department's Combatant Status Review Tribunals, which were used to determine if Guantanamo detainees qualify as "enemy combatants."

The government had produced the transcripts with heavy reactions that largely concealed the detainees' claims that they were abused and tortured during interrogations.

In August, the government argued to the court that it should be allowed to continue to withhold the documents, because releasing the information in them would reveal "intelligence sources and methods" and might aid enemy "propaganda."

On Thursday, Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the US District Court for the District of Columbia refused ACLU's request for the review of the documents.

ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner said that the court is allowing the government to suppress the evidence "not to protect any legitimate national security interest, but to protect current and former government officials from accountability."

SG/SS/MMA