NEW YORK - June 2 - The American Civil Liberties Union will be in court today arguing that the habeas corpus case of Guantánamo prisoner Mohammed Jawad should move forward promptly. The government has continually attempted to delay the challenge to the unlawful detention of Jawad, who has been held in U.S. custody for almost seven years.

On May 26, the government filed a motion asking for an extension to comply with a court order to produce facts and evidence it intends to use in its case. The ACLU today filed its opposition to this most recent attempt to delay the case. In the filing, the ACLU charges that the government's eleventh-hour motion for an extension of time "is yet another unjustifiable attempt to frustrate Petitioner Mohammed Jawad's right to challenge his imprisonment by the United States."

The ACLU's filing in opposition to the government's motion for an extension is available online at: www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/39704lgl20090601.html

More information about Jawad's case is available at: www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/38714res20090113.html

WHAT:
A hearing in the habeas corpus challenge to the detention of Mohammed Jawad, a Guantánamo prisoner who has been in U.S. custody since he was a teenager.

WHO:
Jonathan Hafetz, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project, will argue on behalf of Jawad before Judge Ellen S. Huvelle. In addition to Hafetz, attorneys on the case are Arthur Spitzer of the ACLU of the National Capital Area and U.S. Air Force Major David J. R. Frakt, who also represents Jawad in his military commission case.

WHEN:
Today, June 2, 2009
2:00 p.m. EDT

WHERE:
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
Courtroom 14
333 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001