KABUL — U.S. military lawyers asked Afghanistan’s highest court Monday to demand the release of a Guantanamo prisoner who they say was about 12 years old — not 18, as the military maintains — when he was sent to the detention center.
Mohammed Jawad’s attorneys say they are enlisting Afghan courts because President Barack Obama’s decision to close Guantanamo and reconsider how detainees should be tried has indefinitely stalled their case in the United States.
A ruling by Afghanistan’s judiciary system would not have legal authority in the United States, but Jawad’s attorneys hope to create political pressure to move the case forward.
A judge in the Jawad case had dismissed key confessions and the chief prosecutor resigned after arguing unsuccessfully for a plea bargain.
