| Suzanne Lachelier | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1967 New York |
| Nationality | USA |
| Alma mater | Boston University |
| Occupation | lawyer |
| Employer | United States Navy |
| Title | commander |
Suzanne Lachelier (b. 1967 in New York) is an American lawyer and commander in the United States Navy.[1][2]
Lachelier lived in France, in Orgeval, until 1983. She is fluent in French. She graduated from Boston University School of Law in 1992.
Lachelier is notable for the legal struggle she had to go through before she was allowed to meet Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a Guantanamo captives she was called upon to defend before Guantanamo military commissions. Her clients were held in a top secret location. They had to wear hoods when they were transported to and from court. One of her clients refused to leave his cell, and she had never met him. She petitioned the Presiding Officer to be allowed to visit him at the secret site—something she was prohibited from doing, because she was not authorized to know its location.
She offered to wear a hood, just like her clients, while being transported to and from the site, so she wouldn't learn its location.[2]
On 18 November 2008 Lachelier and her co-counsel, Rich Federico, were allowed to visit the site, without being forced to wear a hood.[2] They were however transported in the same windowless van used to transport the captives, so they wouldn't learn the camp's location.[3] Bin al Shibh's mental health was in question. During the earlier, Presidentially authorized, military commissions, struck down by the United States Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, suspects were not allowed to defend themselves, nor were they free to choose not to attend their commissions. The military commissions that were later authorized by the United States Congress, through the Military Commissions Act of 2006
In May 2008 Lachalier played a key role in arranging for another of her clients, Ibrahim Al Qosi, to make his first phone call home.[4][5][6][7]