MANAMA, 2 July 2005 — Family members of five Saudi Guantanamo detainees met here yesterday two US lawyers representing the detainees. The meeting is part of the lawyers’ preparations to meet their ‘clients’ for the first time, possibly as early as the first week of August.
Lawyers Anant P. Raut and Connie Ericson from Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a New York-based law firm, described their five-day visit as an attempt to get to know their clients and build bridges of confidence between them, the detainees they are representing and their families
“The primary reason we wanted to meet the families was to get as much information as possible about our clients and get a personal image of them so that the first time we meet them, we have a good idea of who they are and perhaps have a better chance of winning their trust,” Ericson said “We understand that increasingly, some of the detainees are starting to mistrust their US lawyers following allegations that military interrogators misrepresented themselves as lawyers.”
Ericson added that to be able to defend them effectively they need first to win their trust. To facilitate that, the lawyers will carry short introductory letters from the families. They also filmed short video tapes, and took pictures with the detainees’ relatives to show to them when they meet for the first time.
Raut said that none of their five clients had been charged with anything and that they were being held on what is called ‘information return’ — which is secret information the government holds. “Our judge gave the government six months to turn this information over to us so we do not expect to know what the charges are before October,” he said
Both the lawyers reiterated the complaint that has been made by US lawyers and activists in the past weeks, namely that not enough has been done by Arab governments to demand the return of their detainees, compared with the demands put forward by other European, Australian, and Afghan allies who were able to demand better treatment for and get their nationals returned.
Raut and Ericson are part of more than 400 US lawyers representing the detainees on Pro Bono bases and both had lived through the terror of the Sept. 11 attacks and yet believe that the detainees deserve to have the right to defend themselves in court.
Raut defended their efforts to look after the detainees pointing out that they are not supporting terrorists but giving people the chance to challenge assumptions that they were terrorists because of their color of skin or origin.
The two are representing Saudi detainees Abdullah Thani Al-Anzai, Adel Hussan Al- Nussairi, Naief Fahad Al-Otaibie, Abdulaziz Saad Oshan, and Ibrahim Sulieman Al-Rubaish.
