NEW YORK - May 15 - Today cooperating attorneys with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) are headed to Guantánamo to meet with their client Saleem Adem for the first time, in response to a Friday ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Roberts ordering the Defense Department to grant the attorneys access. The ruling denied the Bush Administration's motion for reconsideration, effectively rejecting the administration's attempt to deny the detainee access to counsel for months (Adem v. Bush). Mr. Adem had been asking for legal assistance for over a year.

"Today the court affirmed what we have been arguing for years - all people have a right to counsel and due process. This case shows the Bush Administration must stop stonewalling justice and allow all detainees' access to attorneys. It is encouraging that the court is asserting its traditional role to oversee unchecked executive power," said Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, a CCR staff attorney. CCR estimates that the administration has prevented attorney meetings with at least 270 persons in Guantánamo.

Judge Roberts also rejected the administration's position that the Detainee Treatment Act stripped the court of the authority to construe rules on client access. The original ruling in Adem v. Bush was handed down by U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Kay on March 21, 2006. He ruled that Mr. Adem must be allowed to meet with his attorneys, and that the Bush Administration's efforts to delay and prevent such action could render the detainee's "right to counsel meaningless." The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which currently oversees 450 pro-bono attorneys representing the detainees, applauded the decision as an important protection of due process.

According to recent estimates, the government is currently detaining about 490 prisoners at the Guantánamo Bay prison camp.

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