PERSON: Baher Azmy

Center for Constitutional Rights

Director

Baher is an esteemed lawyer, professor, and scholar, who has actively pursued constitutional and human rights litigation challenging policies emerging from the so-called “war on terror,” including policies related to indefinite executive detention, extraordinary rendition, and torture. Baher represented Murat Kurnaz, a German resident of Turkish descent imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay by the U.S. military as a so-called “enemy combatant,” until his release in August 2006. He visited Guantánamo numerous times and participated extensively in varied briefing that has occurred in the courts, including in the Supreme Court in Boumediene v. Bush and in the consolidated Guantánamo habeas cases. He has continued to provide leadership on issues surrounding Guantánamo cases and national security in a variety of academic, professional, and human rights forums, and has testified before Congress. He also litigated cases challenging police misconduct and violations of the rights of immigrants, prisoners, and the press. He has authored numerous legal briefs in the Courts of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court on various human rights and international law issues, and has produced substantial scholarship on issues related to access to justice. His work on the Kurnaz case and others has been featured in a number of prominent media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, CBS’ 60 Minutes, The Boston Globe, Miami Herald, Village Voice, Mother Jones, and New York Magazine.

-- ccrjustice.org