Chana3812
12-15-2007, 09:56 PM
This is the beginning of some good news hopefully from Gitmo. What an embarassment for America - our own torture prison. So many innocent people being held there ... their only crime is being Muslim.
Guantanamo Client Of Portland Attorneys Released
By April Baer
Portland, OR December 14, 2007 1:09 p.m.
Federal public defenders in Portland are celebrating a victory today. The team represents several detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. Thursday one them was freed.
Adel Hamad was a Sudanese hospital administrator working in Afghanistan during the 90s. Pakistani authorities arrested him in Peshawar in 2002.
He was delivered to United States troops, accused of having links to Al Qaeda -- a charge he's vehemently denied. He was held at Guantanamo for over five years.
Hamad's case took many turns through legal and diplomatic channels.
Portland lawyer Steven Wax is part of the defense team. Wax says he can't say for sure why the government decided to release Hamad now.
Steven Wax: "I wish I could answer that. I don't think there's any way for us to know. I do know that the order from the court in his case to get to the merits was the first such order for any of the prisoners. Maybe that had an effect. Maybe the government finally decided that it just did not want a public airing on any of the cases."
Wax notes that while Hamad was allowed to return home to his wife and children in Sudan, other Guantanamo detainees represented by the Portland team have been sent to other foreign prisons.
The government has not commented on the terms of Hamad's release.
http://news.opb.org/article/guantanmo-client-portland-attorneys-released/
Guantanamo Client Of Portland Attorneys Released
By April Baer
Portland, OR December 14, 2007 1:09 p.m.
Federal public defenders in Portland are celebrating a victory today. The team represents several detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. Thursday one them was freed.
Adel Hamad was a Sudanese hospital administrator working in Afghanistan during the 90s. Pakistani authorities arrested him in Peshawar in 2002.
He was delivered to United States troops, accused of having links to Al Qaeda -- a charge he's vehemently denied. He was held at Guantanamo for over five years.
Hamad's case took many turns through legal and diplomatic channels.
Portland lawyer Steven Wax is part of the defense team. Wax says he can't say for sure why the government decided to release Hamad now.
Steven Wax: "I wish I could answer that. I don't think there's any way for us to know. I do know that the order from the court in his case to get to the merits was the first such order for any of the prisoners. Maybe that had an effect. Maybe the government finally decided that it just did not want a public airing on any of the cases."
Wax notes that while Hamad was allowed to return home to his wife and children in Sudan, other Guantanamo detainees represented by the Portland team have been sent to other foreign prisons.
The government has not commented on the terms of Hamad's release.
http://news.opb.org/article/guantanmo-client-portland-attorneys-released/