IN RE: GUANTANAMO BAY DETAINEE LITIGATION

Filing 586

NOTICE of Authorization by ABDULLAH BO OMER HAMZA YOYEJ re (524 in 1:05-cv-02386-UNA, 210 in 1:08-mc-00442-TFH) Order (Attachments: # 1 Declaration, # 2 Exhibit A, # 3 Exhibit B)(O'Hara, Matthew)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

INRE:
GUANT ANAMO BAY DETAINEE

Misc. No. 08-442 (TFH) Civil Action No. 05-2386 (RW)

LITIGATION
DE CLAR

TION OF MATTHEW J. O' HARA
1746:

Matthew J. O' Hara declares as follows pursuant to 28 U.S. c.

I am an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of Ilinois.

I am a parner in

the law firm of Reed Smith LLP.

My client Umar Hamzayevich Abdulayev is a prisoner in the prison maintained
by the United States military at the U. S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He has been

imprisoned there without charge since February 2002.

I have had nine separate meetings with Mr. Abdulayev at Guantananamo Bay

beginning in January 2008. I have visited Mr. Abdulayev on separate trips to Guantanamo Bay

in: January 2008, April 2008 , and July 2008. My last meeting with him was on July 23 , 2008.
I have requested the United States Department of Defense to allow me to visit Mr.
Abdulayev again on November 17 and 19 2008. During my meetings with him, Mr. Abdulayev has conveyed to me his authority

for me and my colleagues at Reed Smith LLP and the Center for Constitutional Rights to

represent him in connection with his imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay, including but not limited
to prosecuting the petition for a writ of habeas corpus that was fied
No. 05-2386.
on his behalf in

Civil Action

Mr. Abdulayev has not signed an authorization because I have not asked him to
do so. I have not

asked him to sign such an authorization because I believed that no rule or order

of this Cour required me to do so.
On June 27, 2006, Judge Reggie B. Walton entered the Amended Protective

Order and Procedures for Counsel Access to Detainees at the United States Naval Base in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, first issued on November 8 , 2004 in
344 F. Supp. 2d 174 (D.

In re Guantanamo Detainee Cases

C. 2004) and certain subsequent related orders in this case (the
Docket No. 66.)
The Protective Order did not

Protective Order

). (Civil Action No. 05-2386 ,

require petitioners to sign an authorization stating that a petitioner had authorized counsel to

pursue the action. Rather, the Protective Order provided that "Counsel shall provide evidence of
his or her authority to represent the detainee. . . . "
(Prot. Order,

Revised Procedures for Counsel
) It has

Access to Detainees at the U. S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ~ III.C.

been

my understanding during my representation of Mr. Abdulayev that evidence of my authority to
represent a detainee may take the form of a sworn statement. See Adem v.

Bush Civil Action

No. 05- 723

(RWR) (AK), Document 42, at 14- 15 ("Here, a sworn statement provides evidence
). A copy of

that (petitioner) was actively seeking a lawyer to represent him.

this Memorandum

Opinion and Order is attached to this Declaration as Exhibit A. To my knowledge, the

Governent has abided by this order since that time in cases involving other men imprisoned at
Guantanamo Bay.

We have fied a petition under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 in the Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia on behalf of Mr. Abdulayev. In
that litigation,

we filed in

that cour and served upon the Governent the Declaration signed by me dated March 4 , 2008
that is attached to this Declaration as Exhibit B.

-2-

The Governent never questioned or expressed any doubt concerning our
authority to represent Mr. Abdulayev until it fied its Status Report in Misc. No. 08-442 on July
, 2008. The Governent has never denied me or my colleagues access to Mr. Abdulayev on

the purported basis that we lack the authority to represent him.

I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the
foregoing is true and correct.

DATED: September 29 2008

22061 71.

-3-

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
The undersigned states that on September 29 2008 , I electronically fied
NOTICE OF AUTHORIZATION BY UMAR HAMZA YEVICH ABDULA YEV

the foregoing
with the

Clerk of the Cour using the ECF system, which wil send notification of such fiings to all
counsel of record.

/s/ Matthew J. O' Hara Matthew J. 0 ' Hara REED SMITH LLP

10 South Wacker Drive Chicago , Ilinois 60606 (312) 207- 1000 mohara(freedsmith. com