Alan J. Pfeuffer

Alan Pfeuffer is an American lawyer.cite news
url=http://www.columbusdispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/05/30/secured.ART_ART_05-30-07_A1_CK6S2EM.html
title=Lawyer's defense of terror suspects an endurance test
date=Wednesday, May 30 2007
author=Kevin Mayhood
publisher=The Columbus Dispatch
accessdate=2007-05-30]

He is notable for having an earlier twenty-year career as a police officer, before shifting to law, and for volunteering to serve as a lawyer to Guantanamo captives.

Police career

Academic career

Pfeuffer was a participant in the Capital University Law School's 1999 Moot Court Team.cite web
url=https://culsnet.law.capital.edu/MootCourtTeam/FormerTeams.asp
title=Former Moot Court Teams
publisher=Capital University Law School
accessdate=May 30
accessyear=2007]

Legal career

Pfeuffer works in the Columbus, Ohio office of the Federal Public Defender.cite web
url=http://www.fpd-ohs.org
publisher=Federal Public Defender
title=Federal Public Defender Southern District of Ohio
accessdate=May 30
accessyear=2007]

Guantanamo clients

Pfeuffer's Afghan clients are Ahsanallah Pirzai and Abdul Ahmad.In October 2005 a US District Court judge in Washington, D.C. received hand handwritten notes from Pirzai and Ahmad, asserting their innocence. He then assigned the two men to Pfeuffer.But, as of May 30 2007, Pfeuffer had not been able to visit the men, phone them, or write to them.Pfeuffer told "The Columbus Dispatch":quotation|"I don't know if they even know I exist,"

Pfeuffer filed a complaint on behalf of the two men on January 4 2006.He argued that the Bush Presidency was violating their rights under both US and international law.He called the unlawful detention a war crime, and requested that the two men either be released or face trial.

The Department of Justice argued that the Detainee Treatment Act prohibited captives initiating new habeas corpus appeals.

According to the Columbus Dispatch Pfeuffer then decided to research the information that was available to the public, including cases that dated back to the 1700s, and the thousands of pages of transcripts the DoD released on March 3 2006. Pfeuffer travelled to Afghanistan on August 1 2006, to interview witnesses who knew the two men.

Two men from Ahmad's village were able to confirm that he was a schoolteacher, just as he had testified, who had never had any ties to the Taliban.

On August 26 2006 Pfeuffer received an email from a Department of Justice lawyer, telling him that Pirzai had been released. In February 2007 Pfeuffer was told that Ahmad had also been released.Pfeuffer told the Columbus Dispatch that he didn't know whether the men were released, whether they had been transferred to Afghan custody, or whether they were still in Guantanamo.

References