Report from Hamad’s Home

William Teesdale and Steve Wax have just got off the phone with Adel Hamad, back at his home in Sudan. Tired but happy, Adel expressed thanks to all of us, particularly about all the publicity generated around his case. Below is the press release just issued by Steve Wax of the Federal Public Defenders Office with more quotes from Adel Hamad from his home in Sudan:

The Federal Public Defender for the District of Oregon is pleased to
announce the repatriation of two of its clients from the United States prison at
Guantánamo - Adel Hassan Hamad to Sudan and Chaman Gul to Afghanistan.
Mr. Hamad had a joyful reunion with his family and friends early Thursday
morning Khartoum time. Speaking over the noise of the celebration, he told his
lawyers, “I thank God almighty and express my gratefulness to you. I can finally
see the light after the darkness.”

Mr. Hamad is an innocent hospital administrator and aid worker from Sudan
who spent nearly five years in Guantánamo after being arrested in his bed in his
home in Peshawar, Pakistan where he had been living with his family and working for an international charity. Since being assigned to represent Mr. Hamad in October 2005, Federal Defender Steven Wax and his staff have been working to clear his name. In August 2006, Federal Defender Investigator and Attorney William Teesdale traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan and obtained ten sworn statements from Mr. Hamad’s employer, doctors at the hospital, Afghan government officials, and his landlord. In April 2007, Mr. Teesdale and Mr. Wax traveled to Sudan and gathered additional evidence of Mr. Hamad’s innocence.

Mr. Hamad was approved for transfer from Guantánamo in November 2005. In addition to gathering evidence of his innocence, his attorneys worked hard at getting the Sudanese and United States government’s to agree on his repatriation. Mr. Hamad became one of the visible faces among the prisoners at Guantánamo as the story of imprisonment of this innocent man was spread around the world. While Mr. Hamad and his attorneys are thrilled that he is finally home, the fight to clear his name goes on. As Mr. Hamad told his attorneys, “I still want justice.” In the labyrinthine world of the military, his repatriation was called a transfer, not a release. He will continue to press the United States Military to hold a hearing based on the evidence of innocence submitted by his attorneys to clear his name. He will also continue to press the habeas corpus and Detainee Treatment Act cases pending in the District of Columbia courts through which he has been attempting to secure release and clear his name since 2005.

Chaman Gul, the Federal Defender’s other client released this week, is not as
fortunate as Mr. Hamad. He has been transferred to Unit D of the Policharki
prison recently built outside Kabul with United States assistance. All Afghans sent
back from Guantánamo in recent months have been locked up in Policharki. It is
not clear how much control the United States continues to have over them and
what rights they will have there.

Nearly 300 prisoners remain in Guantánamo, including three of the Federal
Defender’s original seven clients. The fight for their freedom and the fight to
restore habeas corpus rights goes on in the courts. Having twice rejected the
administration’s overly expansive view of its powers under the Constitution, the
Supreme Court heard arguments last week on a third round of litigation designed to restore the proper balance under our Constitution.

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