Detention of Muslims focus of lecture
By CAROL DeMARE, Staff writer
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Times Union
For two years now, attorney Baher Azmy, a constitutional law professor at Seton Hall Law School, has been telling the story of Guantanamo Bay detainee Murat Kurnaz. The account of Kurnaz's plight has appeared in national and international publications and, earlier this year, on "60 Minutes."
On Monday, Oct. 6, Azmy will speak at Albany Law School, offering his expertise on civil rights cases and particularly what Azmy believes is the widespread illegal detaining of Muslims, said Ali Chaudhry, vice president of the Muslim Law Students Association.
Kurnaz, who is of Turkish Muslim descent, was born and lives in Germany. During the five years he was held in Guantanamo as an enemy combatant, Azmy was one of many attorneys and others who came to his defense.
A month after 9/11, in October 2001, Kurnaz, who had recently married a devout Muslim, traveled to Pakistan "to learn how to read Arabic and rediscover his faith because his wife wanted him to be more religious," Chaudhry, a second-year student, said.
While there, he was taken off a bus at a security checkpoint staffed by Pakistani police and turned over to U.S. authorities who paid the Pakistanis $3,000 for Kurnaz's capture on terrorist activities, Chaudhry said.
Kurnaz was 19. In August 2006, he was released from Guantanamo to his home country, Germany, without being charged with a crime. Now 26, he has written his memoir "Five Years of My Life: An Innocent Man in Guantanamo."
Kurnaz's release came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed to President Bush, Chaudhry said. Kurnaz's family hired a German lawyer to intercede and German officials conducted their own investigation and "he came up clean," Chaudhry said.
Marwa Elbialy, president of the Muslim law students group, which has eight members and draws from the Albany community for events, saw Azmy on "60 Minutes" and invited him to speak, Chaudhry said.
The Muslim students are also involved with Muslim Innocents Project, a recently formed Albany group that has distributed a list of Muslims in detention centers without due process in this country and abroad.
Fliers posted at the school brought a good response, Chaudhry said. It's the second event sponsored by the group involving the detention of Muslims. In the spring, Albany lawyer Terry Kindlon spoke on the trial and appeal of the conviction of Yassin M. Aref and Mohammed M. Hossain on federal charges of laundering money in a fictitious terror plot.
Baher is an Egyptian-American and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School who previously practiced in New York City. At Seton Hall, he is involved with a civil rights clinic where he takes pro bono cases.
Chaudhry said Albany Law students hope to learn how the clinic works and the role of Seton Hall students in the litigation process. Faculty from a civil rights clinic at Albany Law will also attend the lecture, which is open to the public.
"When I sent invitations out to everyone, I got a bunch of responses from the faculty in our own law school who have known (Azmy) for years," Chaudhry said. The sister of one Albany Law professor, Melissa Breger, a member of the clinical faculty, went to law school with Azmy. Azmy will speak from 6 to 7 p.m., followed by a reception at the law school on New Scotland Avenue.