Jailed for Protesting Gitmo: 34 Convicted for Demonstrations Outside Supreme Court

By Frida Berrigan, AlterNet. Posted May 30, 2008.

Thirty-four Americans arrested at the Supreme Court on January 11, 2008 were found guilty after a three-day trial which began on Tuesday, May 27th in D.C. Superior Court. The defendants represented themselves, mounting a spirited defense of their First Amendment rights to protest the gross injustice of abuse and indefinite detention of men at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.

Charged with "unlawful free speech," the defendants were part of a larger group that appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on January 11 -- the day marking six years of indefinite detention and torture at Guantanamo. "I knelt and prayed on the steps of the Supreme Court wearing an orange jumpsuit and black hood to be present for Fnu

Fazaldad," said Tim Nolan, a nurse practitioner from Asheville, NC who provides health care for people with HIV.

Defendants and witnesses argued that they did not expect to be arrested at the Supreme Court, "an internationally known temple to free speech." Ashley Casale, a student at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, told the court, "I am 19 -- the youngest person in this courtroom--and I come on behalf of all the prisoners at Guantanamo who were younger than I am now when they were detained. According to the U.S. Constitution we have a right to petition the government for a redress of grievances and Guantanamo Bay prison is beyond grievous."

Historian Michael S. Foley, a professor at the City University of New York, teaches the U.S. Constitution to undergraduates. He testified that if "you told me that the defendants would be arrested for 'unlawful free speech' just twenty feet from where the Justices decide First Amendment cases, I'd say you were 'crazy.'"

Arthur Laffin gave the following closing statement at the January Guantanamo Trial:

"My name is Arthur Laffin and I am representing Mane'I al Otaybi, a Saudi national who was 25 years old when he was taken into U.S. custody in Afghanistan. He died at the Guantanamo military prison on June 10, 2006 of a reported suicide. To date, there has been no independent investigation of his death or the others who have died at

Guantanamo. We remember these dead prisoners in a special way here in this court today.

"The government has asserted that this case is not about Guantanamo. We respectfully and vehemently disagree. In our defense, we have to put forth to this court overwhelming evidence that the U.S. government has engaged in criminal conduct. What is at issue here is: what do citizens do when all three branches of government are in violation of divine law, international law, and its own Constitution? When habeas corpus rights are denied to persons, when persons are held indefinitely without being charged, when persons are tortured by U.S. personnel in violation of the Geneva Conventions and the Eighth Amendment to the Bill of Rights, we citizens have a right and a duty to petition the government and to seek redress. This is what we defendants did on January 11.

"You have heard evidence that we wrote a letter to the Supreme Court Justices well in advance of January 11, appealing to them to grant due process for the Guantanamo prisoners -- to restore habeas corpus rights, to outlaw the crime and sin of torture, and to order the closing of Guantanamo. To date we have received no response. We went

to the Supreme Court on January 11 to appeal in person to the justices, imploring them to do their job to uphold the law and administer justice.

"As government and defense witnesses have testified, our actions were nonviolent and prayerful. We did not go there to call attention to ourselves, an organization or movement. We carried the names of the Guantanamo prisoners in our hearts, and once arrested, gave the names of the prisoners instead of our own names. Throughout our 30 hours of incarceration, and throughout this entire court case, we have continued to state that we are here on behalf of these prisoners.

…

"Judge Gardner, we contend our actions were morally and legally justified and that we had no other recourse than to take the action we did. We should never have been arrested in the first place. Our intention on January 11 was not to commit a crime. Our action was clearly in accordance with God's law which calls us to uphold the sacredness of all life, and International law and the U.S. Constitution. On January 11, as now, we sought to bring public notice to prisoners whose lives are endangered at the Guantanamo U.S. Military Prison. There is an imminent harm here, an emergency. The

See more stories tagged with: protest, torture, supreme court, war on terror, geneva conventions, guantanamo, human rights, nonviolence, criminal justice system, witness against torture, michael s. foley, arthur laffin

Frida Berrigan serves on the National Committee of the War Resisters League.

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