We represented Mohammad Jawad, one of two Guantanamo detainees who were juveniles when first detained. In January 2009, we filed an amended petition for habeas corpus seeking Mr. Jawad’s prompt release. After the case was stayed for several months to allow the new Obama administration to review the Guantanamo situation, we moved to suppress Mr. Jawad’s alleged confessions—written in a language he neither spoke nor understood, and which were the only significant evidence against him—as the unreliable products of torture. The government conceded that his statements should be suppressed, and in July the court granted the motion and scheduled a trial for that August.
In order to avoid a trial, the government conceded in the latter half of July 2009 that Mr. Jawad could no longer be held under the authority of the 2001 congressional Authorization for Use of Military Force resolution. Shortly thereafter, the court granted the writ of habeas corpus and ordered Mr. Jawad released after a congressionally-mandated waiting period. In August 2009, the government reported that he had been released and transported to Afghanistan, where he met with President Karzai at the Presidential Palace and was escorted to his home village by the Attorney General of Afghanistan, where he was reunited with his family.
