Amlawdaily May 03, 2011
A judge in Immigration Court in Arlington, Va., last month granted asylum in the U.S. to an Ethiopian man who escaped that country after being imprisoned and tortured for months.
A team of lawyers from McDermott Will & Emery, led by Washington, D.C., litigation partner Ryan Smethurst, represented the man in the pro bono case, claiming that he was persecuted by the Ethiopian government because of political beliefs and ethnicity.
(The man is Gurage, an ethnic minority in Ethiopia.) Department of Homeland Security lawyers argued that the man shouldn't be granted asylum because he spent almost two years in Kenya after escaping Ethiopia.
The client, "Mr. K," drove a taxi and lived in Addis Ababa during the contested 2005 national elections. He was one of thousands of Ethiopian protesters arrested. Mr. K said he was imprisoned for three months without being charged and was tortured repeatedly until he escaped.
He hid for almost two years in Kenya before traveling to Brazil, and ultimately to the United States in May 2008.
On Monday, Smethurst spoke with The Am Law Daily about the case and how his team (which included associates Amy Granger and Beth Hatef) became involved. More reading on Amlawdaily.
A judge in Immigration Court in Arlington, Va., last month granted asylum in the U.S. to an Ethiopian man who escaped that country after being imprisoned and tortured for months.
A team of lawyers from McDermott Will & Emery, led by Washington, D.C., litigation partner Ryan Smethurst, represented the man in the pro bono case, claiming that he was persecuted by the Ethiopian government because of political beliefs and ethnicity.
(The man is Gurage, an ethnic minority in Ethiopia.) Department of Homeland Security lawyers argued that the man shouldn't be granted asylum because he spent almost two years in Kenya after escaping Ethiopia.
The client, "Mr. K," drove a taxi and lived in Addis Ababa during the contested 2005 national elections. He was one of thousands of Ethiopian protesters arrested. Mr. K said he was imprisoned for three months without being charged and was tortured repeatedly until he escaped.
He hid for almost two years in Kenya before traveling to Brazil, and ultimately to the United States in May 2008.
On Monday, Smethurst spoke with The Am Law Daily about the case and how his team (which included associates Amy Granger and Beth Hatef) became involved. More reading on Amlawdaily.
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