Guantanamo Civil Rights

This brightened my day. It comes from an e-newsletter sent out by the ACLU to its members.

Breaking News: Judge Orders ACLU Client Freed from Guantánamo Bay

Today -- in a Guantánamo detainee case the ACLU has pursued for several years -- a federal judge ordered one of the deepest injustices at that infamous detention facility brought to an end.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle gave the Justice Department until August 21 to release Mohammed Jawad from Guantánamo and transfer him to the custody of the Afghan government, which has indicated that it is prepared to receive Jawad immediately and unconditionally.

Judge Huvelle made clear that Mr. Jawad has been illegally detained, and the government has no credible evidence to continue holding him. We are pleased that the Justice Department has expressed a commitment to getting him home so that this nightmare of abuse and injustice can finally come to an end.

In its last term, the Supreme Court ruled that Guantánamo detainees have a constitutional right to habeas corpus. And now, by representing Mr. Jawad in his habeas case, the ACLU has helped end his lawless detention.

Following his 2002 arrest in Afghanistan for allegedly throwing a grenade at two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter, Jawad was subjected to repeated torture and other mistreatment and to a systematic program of harsh and highly coercive interrogations designed to break him physically and mentally. At one point, Jawad tried to commit suicide in his cell by slamming his head repeatedly against the wall.

Last fall, a military judge in Jawad's Guantánamo military commission proceeding threw out the bulk of the evidence against him finding that it was obtained through torture. And recently, the Afghan Attorney General sent a letter to the U.S. government demanding Jawad's return and suggesting he was as young as 12 when he was captured in Afghanistan and illegally rendered from that country nearly seven years ago.

Now finally, seven years of illegal detention are about to come to an end.

With your help, the ACLU will build on this important victory against illegal detention and lawless government actions until respect for human rights and the rule of law is fully restored.