Washington, DC, May 29, 2008 - Today, Judge Wendell Gardner refused to hear testimony from Guantanamo attorney, Thomas Wilner, in the trial of 34 Americans arrested while acting on behalf of Guantanamo detainees at the U.S. Supreme Court on January 11, 2008. Judge Gardner ruled that Wilner’s testimony was unnecessary” and “not relevant” to make a determination.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 29, 2008
CONTACT: Frida Berrigan (347) 683-4928
Frida.berrigan@gmail.com

LAWYER FOR PRISONERS AT GUANTANAMO BARRED FROM TESTIFYING AT TRIAL FOR ANTI-TORTURE ACTIVISTS

HUMAN RIGHTS RULED “UNNECESSARY” AND “NOT RELEVANT”

Washington, DC, May 29, 2008

Today, Judge Wendell Gardner refused to hear testimony from Guantanamo attorney, Thomas Wilner, in the trial of 34 Americans arrested while acting on behalf of Guantanamo detainees at the U.S. Supreme Court on January 11, 2008. Judge Gardner ruled that Wilner’s testimony was unnecessary” and “not relevant” to make a determination.

The defense argued that Wilner, who represents 12 Kuwaiti detainees and who speaks frequently in public about his trips to Guantanamo, helped shape the intent of the defendants in making their protest to shut down the American prison camp in Cuba.

The 34 defendants, acting as their own attorneys, took the names of Guantanamo detainees at the time of arrest and have carried those names through the trial. Some, acting in solidarity with the detainees, have refused to speak during the trial as a way of highlighting the rights withheld from the detainees thus far.

Others have mounted a defense arguing that on January 11, the sixth anniversary of the interrogation camps' opening, they appealed to the justices of the Supreme Court to rule against the Bush administration in the cases of Boumediene v. U.S. and Al Odah v. Bush. They contend that they acted on January 11th after all other remedies had been exhausted and only after hearing lawyers like Thomas Wilner describe the predicaments of their clients, expressing horror and astonishment that more Americans were not protesting the detainees' indefinite detention and torture.

Outside the court house this afternoon, Wilner spoke with the defendants and supporters: “Hopefully, we’ll end torture and indefinite detention as a matter of law. And then, we need to work to make sure that hysteria and false facts don’t sweep the soul of the nation again.” And then he addressed those on trial directly, saying, “You are standing up for the soul of this nation.”

A verdict is expected at the end of the day. The defendants are common citizens: priests and pastors, construction workers and farmers, schoolteachers and professors. They come from Charlottesville, Des Moines, New York City, Scranton, Saratoga, Worcester, and other cities and towns.

Witness Against Torture ( HYPERLINK "http://www.witnesstorture.org" www.witnesstorture.org) will continue its efforts to have the detention facilities at Guantanamo shut down and torture by United States ended. The protest was organized by Witness Against Torture, a group that formed in 2005 when 25 people walked from Cuba to the U.S. detention facilities to protest conditions there.

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