* al-Qurashi v. Obama (D.D.C. Aug. 3, 2010) (GTMO suppression hearing decision)
In a 50-page opinion made public today (but issued on August 3), Judge Huvelle denies a motion to suppress certain evidence in connection with Sabry Mohammad Ebrahim al-Qurashi’s habeas petition. The opinion is posted here. In brief, the motion presented a factual dispute as to whether al-Qurashi was abused while in Pakistani custody after being arrested in Karachi in February 2002, prior to his interrogation by an FBI agent the next day.
Among other interesting aspects, the opinion:
– holds that a statement must be suppressed if “involuntary,” with the voluntariness standard from criminal law providing the relevant measure. To wit:
“This requires the Court to ask whether "the confession is the product of all essentially free and unconstrained choice by its maker," or whether "his will has been overborne and his capacity for self-determination [has been] critically impaired …." Id. The answer to this question is detcl1uined by considering "the totality of all of the surrounding circumstances -both the characteristics of the accused and the details of thee interrogation." (slip op. at 19)
– holds that the burden is on the government to prove by the preponderance of the evidence that the voluntariness test is satisfied (slip op. at 19)
– holds that the government met its burden in this instance:
“the Court is persuaded that Agent****** testimony is to be credited and that this testimony, as elaborated upon herein, in conjunction with other evidence, sustains the government’s burden of establishing voluntariness. The Court also finds, as Judge Kennedy did in Esmail, that petitioner’s "descriptions of abuse, particularly the ones made to his attorneys Sh0l11y before the merits hearing, are exaggerated:’ see 2010 WL 1798989, at *5, and therefore, they cannot be credited.” (slip op. at 22)