MANAMA, 31 July 2004 — A US non-governmental organization seeking to defend Guantanamo detainees said here yesterday the group had been mandated by five Bahraini families to represent their sons who are held at the US detention camp in Cuba. Clive Stafford-Smith, of Justice in Exile, told AFP that many more families from other Arab countries had also mandated the group to go to American courts to challenge their sons’ detention.
“Five families mandated us to represent their family members detained in Guantanamo and we are waiting for the family” of the sixth Bahraini detainee in Guantanamo Bay to do the same, he said.
He said the New Orleans-based group had received similar authorizations from the families of 62 Saudis, 12 Kuwaitis, 31 Yemenis, two Libyans, and one each from Qatar, Syria and Jordan who are among some 600 detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Stafford-Smith said his group would file lawsuits on the families’ behalf. This was on top of 53 cases it has been handling after the US Supreme Court ruled last month that the prisoners were entitled to challenge their detention in American courts.
His group had “requested the help of the Bahrain government to support us with a team of Bahraini lawyers,” as this would “help a lot in the mission to defend Bahraini citizens in front of American courts.” With the US presidential elections approaching, “there are two options for the American administration: Either release the detainees, or allow them to file cases before American courts,” Stafford-Smith said.
