Professor Amann Comments on Gitmo Case for Washington Independent
Professor Diane Marie Amann commented for the Washington Independent on the possibility of new charges being filed against Mohammed Jawad, whose release from the Guantánamo Bay detention center was ordered by a federal court in July. Jawad was arrested in Afghanistan in 2002 for allegedly throwing a hand grenade that injured U.S. soldiers and was tortured into confessing, according to a military judge. D.C. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle granted his petition for habeas corpus July 30, but the Obama administration is reportedly considering how to charge him with essentially the same crime.
Commenting on the case for the Independent, Professor Amann said that "if you look at murder and attempted murder statutes, they don't contemplate extraterritorial jurisdiction," so it would be unlikely the U.S. government could prosecute Jawad for a crime alleged to have occurred in Afghanistan, particularly given his age and the circumstances of his arrest.
Diane Marie Amann is Professor of Law at the UC Davis School of Law and Director of the California International Law Center (CILC) at King Hall. Among her areas of expertise is transnational criminal law, a field about which she has published and in which she practiced while an Assistant Federal Public Defender in San Francisco.