ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – An American citizen who has been detained by the US military in Iraq for several months without legal representation, on allegations of fighting with ISIS, has finally gained access to a lawyer provided by an American rights group.
“The Trump administration illegally denied an American his rights to access a lawyer and a court for nearly four months, but those efforts have finally failed,” said Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney for the American Civil Rights Union (ACLU) on Friday.
The case was filed in the US District court for the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.) against General James Mattis in his official capacity as Secretary of State on January 5.
The US military has been holding the American citizen, who is named only as “John Doe” in the petition in order to protect his identity, in Iraq by the US military since mid-September after being arrested in Syria for allegedly fighting with ISIS.
Following his arrest in Syria, he was then transferred to Iraq for holding by the US military, although the man has not been charged and no evidence has been provided to justify his detention.
Hafetz along with two other ACLU lawyers spoke to the detainee on Wednesday via video conference from the Pentagon, the Associated Press reported.
"He spoke loud and clear that he wants a lawyer and wants to challenge his detention now," Hafetz said, and added the detainee specifically requested representation by the ACLU.
Hafetz said that the ACLU had filed a petition to represent the detained American citizen “months ago” but was told by the detainee that he only learned about the petition shortly before the video conference took place.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled last month that the US military must let the ACLU have “immediate and unmonitored access to the detainee” in order to determine his wishes. The US government acknowledged the detainee had been in the military's custody and had denied his request to have access to an attorney.
The judge also ordered that the detainee not be transferred to another country by the Department of Defense until the ACLU had access to determine his wishes. Upon speaking to the detainee, the ACLU requested the court continue the order that the detainee not be transferred out of Iraq.
An attorney with the Justice Department’s civil division, Kathryn Wyer, told the court earlier that the US government was working “diligently” on the case, however have been unable to decide what to do with the detainee.
The Department of Justice is reviewing the ACLU’s filing “and the court has given the government until 5 p.m. Monday to file a response.”
“Now that our client has secured the judicial review that the government attempted to block, he looks forward to establishing the illegality of his detention,” ACLU's Hafets added.
