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April 23, 2009

Judge Upholds Habeus Corpus for Gitmo Prisoner
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A federal judge has rejected a government motion to dismiss or delay a
challenge to the jailing of Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mohamed Jawad. Jawad
was arrested in Afghanistan when he was sixteen or seventeen years old
on allegations of wounding US soldiers with a grenade. He’s claimed he
was drugged and threatened with death by Afghan interrogators unless he
admitted to the charges. His case was one of five that led Guantanamo
military prosecutor Darrel Vandeveld to resign last year. On Wednesday,
US District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle rejected the government’s attempts
to deny Jawad habeas corpus. Attorney Jonathan Hafetz of the American
Civil Liberties Union said, “While the Justice Department chose to
continue Bush administration policies that sought to evade scrutiny of
Mr. Jawad’s unlawful detention, today’s order emphasizes the importance
of independent judicial review for prisoners who have been held for
years with no legal recourse.”



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