JURIST - Paper Chase: Jury selection begins in Guantanamo names court-martial

[JURIST] Jury selection is expected to begin Wednesday in the court-martial [JURIST report] of US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matthew M. Diaz, charged [press release, DOC] under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Espionage Act with leaking secret national defense information to a person outside the government in connection with allegedly passing then-undisclosed names of Guantanamo detainees [JURIST report] to a lawyer with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) [advocacy website] while stationed at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. Diaz is a former staff attorney with the US Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps [official website]. In February 2005 a CCR lawyer filing habeas corpus appeals on behalf of detainees at Guantanamo received in the mail approximately thirty-nine pages of a computer printout containing approximately 550 detainee names. Suspecting that the document was sensitive, she turned it over to federal authorities. AP afterwards forced the Defense Department to release detainee lists [JURIST report; JURIST documents] through Freedom of Information Act requests. If convicted, Diaz faces more than 36 years in prison.

Defense lawyers for Diaz have argued [motion, DOC] that the government abused legislative provisions authorizing national security letters [ACLU backgrounder] to access Diaz's personal e-mail and that prosecutors read privileged communications marked "attorney work product." Read additional case documents.

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