Update from Federal Defender Steve Wax on Adel Hamad’s legal situation

On February 22, the Department of Defense sent this office a “Detainee
Status Notification” that advised us that Mr. Hamad had “been approved to
leave Guantanamo.” The notice went on to state that this does not mean
that he has been determined not to be an “enemy combatant” or even that
“he does not pose a threat to the United States.” The notice concluded
that there was no information that could be provided on when he might
actually leave Guantanamo.

Based on the refusal of the Department of Defense to comply with its own
rules and tell Mr. Hamad the result of a review of his case in the summer of
2005 or to give him a new review in 2006, and based on statements made to
Mr. Hamad by his interrogators, we believe that the Department of Defense
had decided as early as the summer of 2005 that Mr. Hamad should be sent
home. Yet even today, Mr.Hamad remains in the prison in Guantanamo. We
have asked the Departments of State, Defense, and Justice whether there are
any plans to send Mr. Hamad home or even any negotiations on going with
Sudan. They refuse to provide us any information. We have been advised by
the Sudanese government, through a human rights organization, that there
are no negotiations taking place between Sudan and the United States about
repatriation of Mr. Hamad.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hamad’s court case remains on hold as the government
continues to assert that the courts have no jurisdiction to hear his, or
any detainee’s, habeas corpus case. No one in the government will tell him
whether the Department of Defense is reviewing the evidence he has
submitted showing that he is innocent so that his name can be cleared, his
passport returned, and so that he can be put on a commercial flight home.

— Steve Wax, Federal Defender

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