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A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact: media@aclu.org

ACLU In Court Today In Guantanamo Habeas Case

Government Stalling To Avoid Judicial Scrutiny Of Mohammed Jawad's Indefinite Detention

NEW YORK

The
American Civil Liberties Union will be in court today arguing that the
habeas corpus case of Guantanamo 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 Guantanamo 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

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.

(212) 549-2666