2 local lawyers offer aid to Guantanamo detainees

[Ian David]

By Connie Paige, Globe Correspondent | March 17, 2007

Like many attorneys, Newton lawyers Doris Tennant and Ellen Lubell handle the more routine work of the legal system, representing spouses wanting a divorce and nonprofits needing legal help.

But on Feb. 1, Tennant and Lubell met in Cuba for a face-to-face interview with a client unlike any other: Abdul Aziz Naji, an Algerian Muslim incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay for more than five years as a terrorist.

The meeting took place in a 4-foot-by-5-foot windowless room, bare except for four chairs and a table. The clanging of heavy metal doors outside the room set up a constant din during the five-hour interview. Naji was seated in a chair, shackled hand and foot, his ankles chained to the floor. He says he has been tortured. They say he needs a lawyer.

"I don't feel like I can be a lawyer without doing what we're doing," Tennant told a Boston Bar Association forum yesterday. "When you really see that the rule of law is being so disdained, it's hard to live with yourself and the oath you take as a lawyer, not to mention a responsible citizen, without saying, 'This is the least of what we can do.' "

Tennant and Lubell are part of a nationwide network of lawyers who represent Guantanamo prisoners, organized by the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York. The group is coordinating the defense of about 300 detainees. Tennant and Lubell are among 34 lawyers in Massachusetts assigned to clients.

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