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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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July 30th,
2009 - Judge Orders Young Guantanamo Detainee’s Release |
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Judge Orders Young
Guantanamo Detainee’s Release By Del Quentin Wilber Washington Post July 30, 2009 A federal judge on Thursday
ordered the release of a detainee at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, who was accused of attacking U.S. troops with a grenade in 2002. The government will have at
least until Aug. 21 to send the detainee back to Afghanistan or it could seek
criminal charges against him in the attack. In a court filing last week, the
Justice Department said it was mulling such a prosecution. Mohammed Jawad, whose case
has generated intense support from human rights groups, might have been as
young as 12 when he was arrested by Afghan authorities and turned over to the
U.S. military. He has challenged his
confinement in a federal lawsuit being heard by U.S. District Judge Ellen S.
Huvelle under habeas corpus, a legal doctrine that allows prisoners to
contest their confinements before independent arbiters. Last week, under pressure
from Huvelle and Jawad's lawyers, the Justice Department dropped its defense
of the detainee's challenge, but said it might still charge him with a crime
in a U.S. courtroom. At Thursday's hearing,
Huvelle gave the government until Aug. 6 to notify Congress that it intends
to send Jawad back to Afghanistan. Such notification is required under a law
passed by Congress last month. The government must then
wait 15 days - Congress could try to block his transfer - before sending him
back home. Huvelle said she expected a status report from the Justice
Department on Aug. 24 indicating that Jawad was on his way to Afghanistan.
She left the specific dates and times of his actual release up to the
government for security reasons. In the meantime, the
government could also charge him with a crime under U.S. laws. However, Huvelle strongly
encouraged the government to think hard before bringing charges in a case
with such a "long and tortured history." She noted it would face
obstacles under speedy trial rules and the fact that Jawad was a juvenile at
the time of the attack. The government believes he was 17 when the attack
occurred, according to military records. "I hope the government
will succeed in getting him back to Afghanistan," Huvelle said. Jawad is the 28th prisoner
to be ordered released from Guantanamo Bay by a federal judge. On Wednesday,
another federal judge, Collen Kollar-Kotelly, ordered the release of a
Kuwaiti detainee, Khaled Al-Mutairi, 34. So far, 19 detainees who have been
ordered released remain at the facility. The government has won orders - all
from the same judge - allowing them to continue detaining five prisoners. Justice Department lawyer
Ian Heath Gershengorn said federal prosecutors were reviewing the case but
declined to comment further. He also said the State Department was
negotiating with Afghanistan over Jawad's transfer. Any prosecution of Jawad
would have to rely almost entirely on accounts of eyewitnesses placing him at
the attack. In court filings, the
government has alleged that Jawad threw a grenade into a vehicle that was on
a humanitarian mission, seriously injuring two U.S. Special Forces soldiers
and their Afghan interpreter Dec. 17, 2002. The government had planned
to try Jawad for the attack in military tribunals. But that case evaporated
upon close inspection by military prosecutors and judges. They grew concerned
about how Afghan police and U.S. forces obtained his confessions the night of
the attack. A military judge, Army Col.
Stephen R. Henley, threw out the statements to Afghan police after he
determined that the interrogators had threatened to kill Jawad or his family
if he didn't confess. The judge also tossed out
statements that Jawad gave that night to U.S. soldiers because his fears of
being harmed "had not dissipated." The case received publicity last
year when a military prosecutor quit his post over Jawad's treatment. The former prosecutor also
called for the detainee's release. At a hearing two weeks ago, Huvelle
sharply criticized the government's evidence, saying it was "riddled
with holes." In court papers, Justice
Department lawyers have said they have discovered new evidence that does not
involve Jawad's own statements. © 2009 The Washington Post
Company External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/30/AR2009073000155.html |