{"id":3971,"date":"2008-06-27T03:13:28","date_gmt":"2008-06-27T02:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=3971"},"modified":"2008-06-27T03:13:28","modified_gmt":"2008-06-27T02:13:28","slug":"gitmo-detainee%e2%80%99s-lawyer-%e2%80%98not-allowed-to-tell-him%e2%80%99-he%e2%80%99s-no-longer-an-%e2%80%98enemy-combatant%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/contributions\/gitmo-detainee%e2%80%99s-lawyer-%e2%80%98not-allowed-to-tell-him%e2%80%99-he%e2%80%99s-no-longer-an-%e2%80%98enemy-combatant%e2%80%99\/","title":{"rendered":"Gitmo Detainee\u2019s Lawyer \u2018Not Allowed To Tell Him\u2019 He\u2019s No Longer An \u2018Enemy Combatant\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Think Progress<\/a> | Nearly two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that detainees held at Guant\u00c3\u00a1namo Bay have the right to habeas corpus and can thus challenge their detention<\/a> in civilian courts, a U.S. Court of Appeals dealt another blow to the Bush administration\u2019s detention policy.<\/p>\n

The appeals court ruled that the Pentagon improperly designated<\/a> Huzaifa Parhat, an ethnic Uighur Chinese national, an \u201cenemy combatant\u201d after being swept up by the U.S. military in Afghanistan in 2001 and then sent to Guant\u00c3\u00a1namo Bay, where he has been held since.<\/p>\n

Despite the ruling, Parhat has yet to see any of its benefits. In fact, he doesn\u2019t even know about it. Parhat\u2019s lawyer told CBC radio\u2019s As It Happens<\/a> last night<\/a> that Parhat is currently being held in solitary confinement and \u201chas no idea\u201d the appeals court ruled in his favor because, he added, \u201cI\u2019m not allowed to tell him\u201d:<\/p>\n

DEREK STOFFEL, CBC HOST: Mr. Willett, what\u2019s your client\u2019s reaction to this ruling?<\/p>\n

SABIN WILLETT (PARHAT\u2019S LAWYER): Boy what a great question that is because my client doesn\u2019t know about this ruling because I\u2019m not allowed to tell him<\/strong>. [\u2026] He\u2019s sitting in solitary confinement today. He has no idea what\u2019s happened as far as I know<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Listen here<\/a><\/p>\n

Indeed, it is unclear what the appeals court\u2019s ruling actually means for Parhat. The New York Times noted<\/a> that the U.S. \u201csaid it will not return Uighur detainees to China because of concerns about their treatment at the hands of the Chinese government, which views them as terrorists.\u201d Thus, as another one of Parhat\u2019s lawyers noted, the \u201ccourt victory may not mean freedom<\/a> for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Willett said that \u201cwe\u2019re going to file a motion with a judge to order them to let us call him on the phone and take him out of solitary confinement.\u201d He added, \u201cWe\u2019ve got a man in solitary confinement that they\u2019ve got no authority to hold at all. Its unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Transcript:<\/p>\n

DEREK STOFFEL, CBC HOST: Mr. Willett, what\u2019s your client\u2019s reaction to this ruling?<\/p>\n

SABIN WILLETT (Parhat\u2019s Lawyer): Boy what a great question that is because my client doesn\u2019t know about this ruling because I\u2019m not allowed to tell him.<\/p>\n

STOFFEL: He doesn\u2019t know?<\/p>\n

WILLETT: We\u2019ve asked \u2013 the first thing we did was ask the government for permission to make a phone call and they haven\u2019t given it to us. Now we have a way to send him a letter that goes through clearence and we\u2019ve sent it and maybe in three weeks he\u2019ll get it.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s sitting in solitary confinement today. He has no idea what\u2019s happened as far as I know.<\/p>\n

STOFFEL: Well let me ask you then, what\u2019s your reaction to this ruling?<\/p>\n

WILLETT: Well I\u2019m thrilled except for the constant vexation of the inablitiy to bring this thing to a real and human close. Huzaifa Parhat
\nhas now been determined by about as conservative a court as there is not to be an enemy combatant \u2013 this is what we\u2019ve been saying for years \u2013 and yet I can\u2019t get him out of solitary confinement in the hands of my own government. So it is a frustrating but somewhat thrilling moment for us. [\u2026]<\/p>\n

STOFFEL: I suppose the next thing you need to do is to let your client know what\u2019s happened.<\/p>\n

WILLETT: Thats what we\u2019re trying to do. I mean, we\u2019ve sent him a letter. We\u2019re going to file a motion with a judge to order them to let us call him on the phone and take him out of solitary confinement. I mean we\u2019ve got a man in solitary confinement that they\u2019ve got no authority to hold at all. Its unbelievable. So we\u2019ll be in court pretty soon, trying to get some more relief but it was a good day to get that notice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Think Progress | Nearly two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that detainees held at Guant\u00c3\u00a1namo Bay have the right to habeas corpus and can thus challenge their detention in civilian courts, a U.S. Court of Appeals dealt another blow to the Bush administration\u2019s detention policy. The appeals court ruled that the Pentagon improperly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1616],"tags":[33,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-3971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-contributions","7":"category-usa-news","8":"tag-guantanamo","9":"tag-usa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}