| IJN Secures Repatriation of Bagram Detainee |
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First Known Repatriation of Bagram Detainee to Pakistan in Three Years May 16, 2011, NEW YORK – The International Justice Network (“IJN”), along with co-counsel at the lawfirm of Chadbourne & Parke, LLP, today announced the release of Jan Sher Khan, a Pakistani boy who was imprisoned at the age of 15 and held for over five years without charge or access to his attorneys or family by the U.S. government at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. “We hope that Jan Sher Khan's return will pave the way for future repatriations of approximately 25 more Pakistani nationals at Bagram,” said Tina M. Foster, Executive Director of IJN. "Like Jan Sher, many of these detainees have remained in Bagram despite the fact that the U.S. military has cleared them for release from custody months, or even years ago," Foster added. IJN filed petitions for habeas corpus on behalf of Jan Sher Khan and another Pakistani detainee, Amanatullah, in April 2010 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. On December 9, 2010, the Court ordered the U.S. government to respond to Mr. Khan's petition and, on January 10, 2011, the U.S. government conceded in its response that Jan Sher would be released.Though Mr. Khan was supposed to have been released within 30 days of the government’s January 10 response, it ultimately took almost four months of diplomatic negotiations involving the governments of the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan before Jan Sher was finally returned to Pakistan on April 27, 2011. He was then detained and interrogated by Pakistani authorities for five days before finally being released. Today, IJN will file an Amended Petition for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of its other Pakistani client, Amanatullah, whose remains at Bagram. IJN 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 US courts. |
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