June 24, 2005: Headlines: COS - Morocco: Law: War on Terror: Denver Post: A year after the U.S. Supreme Court declared terror detainees have the constitutional right to challenge their detention, Morocco RPCV Trip Mackintosh of the Colorado-based law firm Holland & Hart announced Thursday that it will represent five Guantanamo Bay prisoners in that quest
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June 24, 2005: Headlines: COS - Morocco: Law: War on Terror: Denver Post: A year after the U.S. Supreme Court declared terror detainees have the constitutional right to challenge their detention, Morocco RPCV Trip Mackintosh of the Colorado-based law firm Holland & Hart announced Thursday that it will represent five Guantanamo Bay prisoners in that quest
Morocco RPCV Trip Mackintosh of the Colorado-based law firm Holland & Hart announced that it will represent five Guantanamo Bay prisoners
A year after the U.S. Supreme Court declared terror detainees have the constitutional right to challenge their detention
Morocco RPCV Trip Mackintosh of the Colorado-based law firm Holland & Hart announced that it will represent five Guantanamo Bay prisoners
Holland & Hart to represent 5 at Guantanamo
Prisoners to challenge detention
By Abbe Smith
Denver Post Staff Writer
Caption: In this January 2003 US Navy file photo, Al-Qaeda and Taliban detainees in orange jumpsuits sit in a holding area at Camp X-Ray at Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Four US human rights experts slammed the United States for stalling on a request to allow visits to terrorism suspects held at its Guantanamo Bay naval base. (AFP/HO/File/Shane T. McCoy)
A year after the U.S. Supreme Court declared terror detainees have the constitutional right to challenge their detention, Colorado-based law firm Holland & Hart announced Thursday that it will represent five Guantanamo Bay prisoners in that quest.
Lawyers from the firm are filing a petition today in U.S. District Court on behalf of Algerian detainee Motai Saib, who has been held at the controversial prison for more than three years without being charged with a crime. The case is one of five that will be taken on pro bono by five teams of lawyers at Holland & Hart.
Human-rights activists and lawyers have complained that more than 500 terror detainees at Guantanamo Bay have been unfairly denied access to legal counsel and courts. The June 2004 Supreme Court decision affirmed those rights.
"This was a very significant decision," Trip Mackintosh, Holland & Hart partner, said Thursday.
In Geneva, meanwhile, U.N. human-rights investigators on Thursday urged the United States to allow them to check conditions at Guantanamo.
The failure of the United States to respond to requests since early 2002 is leading experts to conclude Washington has something to hide at the Cuban base, said Manfred Nowak, a specialist on torture and a professor of human-rights law in Vienna.
"At a certain point, you have to take well-founded allegations as proven in the absence of a clear explanation by the government," Nowak said.
However, he added, "We are not making a judgment if torture or treatment under degrading conditions has taken place."
Washington's response is delayed because the U.S. review process is "thorough and independent" and involves the Bush administration, Congress and the judicial system, said Brooks Robinson, spokeswoman for the U.S. mission to U.N. offices in Geneva.
In Denver, Mackintosh said that giving the Guantanamo Bay detainees proper access to the law will "help shore up the image of the U.S. as a country that follows the rule of law," especially in the wake of negative reports such the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal.
A former Peace Corps volunteer in the West African country of Morocco, Mackintosh said he has the language and cultural skills to communicate with the Algerian detainees. Several other lawyers at the firm speak French, which the Algerians also likely speak.
The lawyers have not spoken yet with the detainees. After filing the petitions, the lawyers can apply for security clearance to talk to their clients at Guantanamo Bay. Military officials will screen all interview notes for sensitive information.
Mackintosh said a best-case scenario would be "if information is brought to light that allows for the release of detainees that are being improperly held as quickly as possible."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Abbe Smith can be reached at 303-820-1201 or asmith@denverpost.com.
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Story Source: Denver Post
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Morocco; Law; War on Terror; Jurisprudence
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