Mr. Kurnaz . . . was a Petitioner in this Court, but he has since been released by the government because of the fact that he had what the CSRTs won't give him, which is a lawyer. He was told, two years after he was detained -- he's a German permanent resident -- he was told at his CSRT, as many of these individuals were not, that he was being held because he associated with a known terrorist. And he was told the name.

He was told that he associated with somebody called Selcook Bilgen who, the government contended, was a terrorist, who . . . had blown himself up while Mr. Kurnaz was in detention . . . in a suicide bombing; and all that Mr. Kurnaz could say at his CSRT where he had no lawyer and had no access to information was I never had any reason to suspect he was a terrorist.

Well, when the government, in the habeas proceedings, filed its factual return in Judge Green's court, it filed as its factual return the CSRT record. His counsel saw that accusation. Within 24 hours, his counsel had affidavits not only from the German prosecutor but from the supposedly deceased Mr. Bilgen, who is a resident of Dresden never involved in terrorism and fully getting on with his life.

That . . evidence would not have been allowed in under DTA review. It wouldn't have been in the CSRT, and it won't come in under DTA review.

And that's why it is inadequate.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Thank you, Mr. Waxman. The case is submitted.
 

Professor Baher Azmy
azmybahe@shu.edu
(973) 642-8291
 

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