Profile: Kramer Levin's Pro Bono Efforts on Behalf of Uighurs in Guantánamo

Litigation associate Michael J. Sternhell's pro bono efforts on behalf of seven ethnic Uighurs to have them released from Guantánamo Bay was profiled in The National Law Journal. Sternhell came to represent the Uighurs, a persecuted Muslim minority group from western China, when a friend from the Center for Constitutional Rights approached him with the case. He said that he had been looking for a Guantánamo case, and believed the government was wrong in denying the men their right to file a habeas corpus petition. The journey for Sternhell's clients from China to Guantánamo began when they fled religious persecution in China and were living in Afghanistan prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks. After September 11, they were captured by bounty hunters and sold to the U.S. military, ultimately resulting in their detention in Guantánamo. Sternhell and the Kramer Levin team filed habeas corpus petitions on behalf of the men in 2005, soon afterwhich the government acknowledged that three of the seven men were not enemy combatants. It wasn't until the fall of 2008 that the government declared all 17 Uighurs being held in Guantánamo were not enemy combatants, which included Sternhell's four other clients. While the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia then ordered all the men released into the United States, the government appealed the decision and four of Sternhell's clients remain in Guantánamo. The other three men were released and now live in Albania. Sternhell was noted as having committed more than 1,400 hours to the representation of the seven men, and even traveled to Albania to ensure that the rights of his three released clients were being respected.

Along with Sternhell, Eric A. Tirschwell, Seema Saifee, Darren LaVerne and Matthew B. Keller also worked on the case.