On the Guantánamo front, it was revealed that government attorneys repeatedly relied on testimony by detainees suffering from psychological disorders to help build cases against other detainees. In one case, Justice Department officials withheld the psychiatric records of one detainee witness who suffered from an anti-social disorder that makes people prone to lie. That witness’s testimony was used to keep Aymen Saeed Batarfi, a Yemeni doctor, at Guantánamo for seven years. The government announced last week that it was planning to release Batarfi, but has not specified when this will happen.

 

Court records also have revealed that the Justice Department relied on testimony from another witness who suffered from psychiatric and substance abuse problems in developing cases against 40 other detainees.

 

Upon learning of the government’s use of unreliable witnesses, Judge Sullivan blew his top, especially in regards to the case of Batarfi, whose release has been postponed indefinitely because the U.S. government does not want to return him to his home country of Yemen. “I’m not going to continue to tolerate indefinite delay on the part of the United States government,” Sullivan said. “I mean this Guantánamo issue is a travesty . . . a horror story . . . and I’m not going to buy into an extended indefinite delay of this man’s stay at Guantánamo.”

 

Sullivan threatened to have government attorneys return to court in 14 days to report on the progress of freeing Batarfi “and every 14 days thereafter.” He added, “I’ll tell you quite frankly if I have to start incarcerating people to get my point across I’m going to start at the top.”

 

Sullivan is also peeved at the Justice Department over its handling of the corruption trial of former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), which Sullivan presided over. The judge has ordered an investigation into the conduct of government lawyers who withheld evidence from both Stevens’ defense team and Sullivan. “In nearly 25 years on the bench, I’ve never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I’ve seen in this case,” he said.

 

Judge: U.S. Hid Witness' Mental Illness in Guantanamo Cases (by Marisa Taylor, McClatchy)

Judge Dismisses Stevens' Conviction, Orders Probe (by Nedra Pickler and Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press)

Surgeon to be Released from Guantánamo after 7 Years (AllGov)