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Visiting Professor Barbara Olshansky, who directs the International Human Rights Clinic, is quoted in a Globe and Mail story about the release of Jawed Ahmad, a journalist, incarcerated for nearly a year by the United States in a detention facility at the U.S. Air Base in Bagram, Afghanistan. Olshansky had filed a lawsuit, Ahmad v. Bush, in June 2008 seeking Ahmad's immediate release.
KABUL — In the U.S. military cells where he saw daylight only once a week, where he says they broke his ribs with beatings, his captors gave him a nickname: "the Canadian reporter."
His formal designation was a detainee number: 3370. Last night, after almost a year in custody, the 22-year-old settled into a king-sized bed at the best hotel in Kabul with a big smile and started to regain his true names: Javed Yazamy, the name on his business card, or Jawed Ahmad, as he's known to friends. Most importantly, he wants to rebuild his career and the working name that made him famous among Canadian journalists: Jojo, a name synonymous with some of the best coverage of breaking stories during his time as cameraman for CTV News in Kandahar.
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"It's a wonderful victory for freedom of speech," said Barbara J. Olshansky, a prominent U.S. human-rights lawyer who recently visited Afghanistan to investigate Mr. Ahmad's case. "Jojo's colleagues ... worked really hard to get him out, and it was only their pressure that made it harder for the U.S. to keep him than let him go."
But the fight for detainees' rights at Bagram will continue, she added. Her non-profit organization, the International Justice Network, has its next scheduled court date in Washington on Dec. 18.