New York, NY, March 30, 2010--The International Justice Network (IJNetwork) today filed two new lawsuits against the U.S. government challenging the illegal detention of two Pakistani men who have been held for over five years, without charge, in U.S. custody at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

One of the petitioners, Amanatullah, was taken into custody by British National Forces in Iraq, and illegally rendered to U.S. custody in Afghanistan.  Amanatullah has repeatedly asked the U.S. government to allow him to meet or speak with his attorneys, Tina M. Foster and Erin Valentine of the International Justice Network.  The U.S. government continues to deny all such requests.

The second petitioner, Jan Sher Khan, was only fifteen years old at the time of his disappearance from his village in Pakistan.  He has been held virtually incommunicado, without access to his attorneys, and without seeing his family for over five years. The cases were filed as two separate habeas corpus petitions in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.  The petitions charge that the US government is violating the laws and Constitution of the United States, as well as international law, by continuing to detain the men without access to lawyers or any court of law through which they can challenge the legality of their detention.

IJNetwork filed the first cases on behalf of Bagram detainees in 2006, and since that time has filed approximately 20 similar petitions for habeas corpus in U.S. court.  IJNetwork also coordinates a coalition of human rights attorneys and advocates working on Bagram-related litigation and advocacy.

Tina M. Foster, Executive Director of IJNetwork, stated, "For all the talk about reformed procedures at Bagram, these cases demonstrate that the U.S. government has yet to establish a fair and accurate procedure at Bagram to end the prolonged indefinite detention of innocent people.  Bagram has come to be known as “Obama’s Guantánamo,” because the Obama Administration has maintained that Bagram can be used as a legal blackhole, just as Guantanamo was used by the Bush Administration.  Bagram is where the U.S. government wants to bring people in order to deny them access to legal assistance or U.S. courts."

Lead counsel for Jan Sher Khan are Oliver Armas, Benjamin Bleiberg, and Lara Aryani of Chadbourne and Parke, LLP, with co-counsel Tina M. Foster and Erin Valentine of IJNetwork.

Foster and Valentine of IJNetwork also represent Petitioner Amanatullah.