Closing Statement for Jan. 11 Guantanamo Trial

My name is Arthur Laffin and I am representing Mane'I al Otaybi, a Saudi national who was 25 years old when he was taken into U.S. custody in Afghanistan. He died at the Guantanamo military prison on June 10, 2006 of a reported suicide. To date, there has been no independent investigation of his death or the others who have died at Guantanamo. We remember these dead prisoners in a special way here in this court today.

The government has asserted that this case is not about Guantanamo. We respectfully and vehemently disagree. In our defense, we have to put forth to this court overwhelming evidence that the US government has engaged in criminal conduct. What is at issue here is what do citizens to when all three branches of government are in violation of divine law, international law, and its own constitution. When habeas corpus rights are denied to persons, when persons are held indefinitely without being charged, when persons are tortured by U.S. personnel in violation of the Geneva Conventions and the Eighth Amendment to the Bill of Rights, we citizens have a right and a duty to petition the government and to seek redress. This is what we defendants did on January 11.

You have heard evidence that we wrote a letter to the Supreme Court Justices well in advance of January 11, appealing to them to grant due process for the Guantanamo prisoners – to restore habeas corpus rights, to outlaw the crime and sin of torture, and to order the closing of Guantanamo. To date we have received no response. We went to the Supreme Court on January 11 to appeal in person to the justices, imploring them to do their job to uphold the law and administer justice.

As government and defense witnesses have testified, our actions were nonviolent and prayerful. We did not go there to call attention to ourselves, an organization or movement. We carried the names of the Guantanamo prisoners in our hearts, and once arrested, gave the names of the prisoners instead of our own names. Throughout our 30 hours of incarceration, and throughout this entire court case, we have continued to state that we are here on behalf of these prisoners.

We also want to underscore for you several other points about the government's case. Again, we want to remind the court that no government witness ever stated exactly what each arrested individual did at the Supreme Court to warrant arrest. For example, no government witness testified that Matt Daloisio was doing any of the things that are prohibited by the statute under which we are charged. Despite the government showing footage of who did certain things, this is not evidence that was presented during the government's case. What is offered in a closing statement is not evidence.

We also submit that we had a Constitutional right and requirement to be on the plaza, steps and inside the Supreme Court, even though the Potts decision says otherwise. (As you know, the Potts decision is still being appealed. It is also important to note that the difference between our case and the Potts case is that two more years have passed for the Guantanamo prisoners and there is still no justice for them.) We submit that it is a grave miscarriage of justice that our First Amendment Right to Freedom of Speech stops as soon as we step from the sidewalk to the first step of the Supreme Court.

Judge Gardner, we contend our actions were morally and legally justified and that we had no other recourse than to take the action we did. We should never have been arrested in the first place. Our intention on January 11 was not to commit a crime. Our action was clearly in accordance with God's law which calls us to uphold the sacredness of all life, and International law and the U.S. Constitution. On January 11, as now, we sought to bring public notice to prisoners whose lives are endangered at the Guantanamo U.S. Military Prison. There is an imminent harm here, an emergency. The Center for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International, lawyers for the prisoners, and released prisoners have all documented the torture they have experienced. To protest their brutal treatment and the desecration of the Quran, many Guantanamo prisoners have gone on hunger-strikes. As documented by the New York Times and other media, prisoners who went on hunger-strikes were place in special restraint chairs, bound, had feeding tubes forced down their nose and throat, and left in these restraint chairs for up to 24 hours – in an attempt by authorities, including medical personnel that defense witness Tim Nolan spoke of, to get prisoners to end their hunger-strikes. In effect, these prisoners have been tortured for simply trying as an act of last resort to seek justice. Judge Gardner, we acted on January 11 to protect the lives of these prisoners and to prevent an imminent harm from occurring.

Article 6, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution states that any law or treaty that the US is party to is the supreme law of the land and binding on all US courts (including this one). As has been stated in our opening statement and by defense witnesses, including Father Pickard, the Geneva Conventions, which the U.S. signed, has been, and continues to be blatantly violated. The Nuremberg Principles, which the United States helped write, state that individuals have a duty to prevent crimes against humanity from occurring and that if people don't act to prevent such crimes, they are actually complicit in them. We, who are on trial today, along with many friends, refuse to be complicit in these crimes.

We ask: Where are the judges and the legal professionals when it comes to confronting the criminal acts of our government? Will we be here five years from now? How many more people have to suffer before we end this horror?

This is an historic moment. If justice is to come for the prisoners and Guantanamo, and all secret US torture centers are to be closed, it will happen because judges like you spoke out and people from across the political spectrum took nonviolent action to petition our government to make this a reality.

Judge Gardner, we are part of a long nonviolent tradition of people of faith and conscience, people who have risked their freedom, and in some cases their lives, to bear witness to truth. William Penn stated: "Always put justice above the law." And St. Paul writes: "Love is the fulfillment of the law." As you determine the outcome of this case, we ask you to put justice above the law. We appeal to you to act in the name of justice, in the name of victims, in the name of truth and love, and find us innocent. We invite you Judge Gardner, and Prosecutor Acevedo, and all the court personnel to join with us as we seek to bring about justice for the Guantanamo prisoners. We really need your help and would most welcome your participation.

I would like to conclude by offering a poem from Usama Abu Kabir, a Guantanamo prisoner:

IS IT TRUE
By Usama Abu Kabir (Guantanamo Prisoner)

Is it true that the Grass grows again after the rain?
Is it true that the Flowers will rise up in the Spring?
Is it true that the Birds will migrate home again?
Is it true that the Salmon swim back up the stream?

It is true. This is true. These are all miracles.
But is it true that one day we'll leave Guantanamo Bay?
Is it true that one day we'll go back to our homes?
I sail in my dreams, I'm dreaming of home.

To be with my children, each one part of me;
To be with my wife, and the ones that I love;
To be with my parents, my world's tenderest hearts.
I dream to be home, to be free from this cage.

But do you hear me, O Judge, do you hear me at all?
We are innocent, here, we've committed no crime.
Set me free, set us free, if anywhere still—
May justice, compassion remain in this world!

(From BookForum – Summer 2006)