Kramer Levin attorneys brought two separate habeas proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in September and December of 2005 on behalf of five detainees held by the U.S. military in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and obtained the release of three of the clients in May 2006.  All of the detainees were Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim minority group native to Western China that has been brutally oppressed by the Chinese government.  Our clients had been held, virtually incommunicado, for over four years without basis, without charge, without access to counsel, and without being afforded any fair process by which they might challenge their detention.  Subsequent to the filing of our first habeas petition, the government acknowledged that three of our clients were not enemy combatants.  Shortly after 9/11, they had been abducted by Pakistani bounty hunters, sold to the U.S. military, and later imprisoned in Guantánamo.  While the military acknowledged that these men were innocent, our clients could not be returned to China where they were likely to face torture or execution.

Kramer Levin litigated on behalf of all five of these men to ensure that they would eventually have their day in court and the opportunity to contest the basis for their indefinite detention.  The Kramer Levin team met with three of the clients in Guantánamo early in 2006.  We also advocated before the United Nations and worked with members of the Uighur-American and international human rights communities to locate a suitable country or countries where the Uighurs of Guantánamo could be resettled after being released.  This work led to three of the clients being released in Albania in May 2006.  Our efforts continue on behalf of the two remaining detainees.

The Kramer Levin team has included Paul Schoeman, Wells Dixon, Michael Sternhell, Joel Taylor, Alison Sclater, and legal assistant Marina Sokolinsky.  We have been assisted by the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has spearheaded the campaign to secure due process and basic human rights for Guantánamo detainees and coordinated the widespread efforts of the private bar to support this effort.  Rachel Meeropol, who started her legal career as a Kramer Levin legal assistant, is one of the principal CCR attorneys leading this effort.

Home: Pro Bono Annual Report