|
Contact Us
Our Services
We Will: Act as liaison between you, the client's family or friend, and the client being held on criminal charges in a foreign country.
Employ competent local counsel and work with them to provide an effective legal defense
Travel to the country where the client is being held
& organize local support
Use extra legal
methods to secure the client's release from foreign jail
Provide legal liaison and lobbying services between the client’s family, their congressional representatives, The U.S. State Department, and the U.S. Embassy in the foreign country where the client is being held
Utilize
the Prison Transfer Treaty to get the client returned to the United States if they have been convicted of a crime and are serving a sentence in a foreign prison
Provide legal assistance for employees living and traveling abroad
  |
Michael J. Griffith, Esq.Michael Jeffrey Griffith received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and his LLB from John Marshall Law School. He was admitted to practice in the State and Federal Courts in New York in 1973. He is the senior partner of International Legal Defense Counsel. He is an experienced international lawyer who has counseled clients in over forty two countries on criminal matters. His most renowned client was William Hayes, the subject of Oliver Stone's movie, Midnight Express, which related an American's experience in a Turkish jail. Mr. Griffith's negotiations with the Turkish government helped originate the concept of the bilateral transfer of prisoners which is now commonplace among many countries of the world. Mr. Griffith testified before the United States Senate and Congress on Prison Transfer Treaties and other foreign prison issues. He also testified as the representative for the International Bar Association on this topic at the 1995 United Nations Conference on "Crime Prevention and the Treatment of Offenders" in Cairo, Egypt. He has previously lectured before the International Bar Association on "Legal Problems of Traveling Abroad" and "Criminal Implications of the International Transboundary Movement of Waste". Recently he represented David Daliberti, the American mechanic, who along with William Barloon, wandered from Kuwait into Iraq and were held by the regime of Saddam Hussein for four months before being released. Mr. Griffith was engaged in negotiations with officials of the Iraqi government and the National Security Council for the release of these men when the President dispatched Congressman (now United Nations Ambassador) William Richardson to Baghdad whose efforts successfully resulted in their freedom. In addition, Mr. Griffith represented Kendrick Ledet and Rodrico Harp, two of the United States servicemen charged with the rape of the twelve year old Japanese girl in Okinawa. He went to Japan three times on behalf of the families of the man to help coordinate their defense and is now supervising their appeal since they both have denied involvement with the rape. Faced with the fact that the servicemen made forced confessions while in Dayo Kanguko Detention, which has been deplored in a report by the International Bar Association, Mr. Griffith brought this issue to the world's attention in numerous press conferences and radio and television appearances, in both Japan and the United States. His relentless attacks on the Japanese judicial system, with respect to the injustices of this practice, helped educate the Japanese public regarding this appalling practice. Likewise, Mr. Griffith brought to the world's attention at the International Bar Association, conference in Sydney, Australia, Japan's involvement with the illegal use of prison labor for the benefit of private companies. His discovery that fifty four American prisoners along with prisoners from twenty other countries are being made to work eight hours a day, five days a week, in violation of international law, has led to worldwide press coverage and his instigation of congressional hearings before a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee who has deplored this practice. He then traveled to numerous countries whose citizens were similarly incarcerated in Japan, and held press conferences with members of the Criminal Law Committee of the International Bar Association, to get the governments of those individual countries to protest to Japan about the use of their nations' prisoners subjected to this deplorable practice. Mr. Griffith contacted the officials of each of the private companies that he discovered were benefiting form the use of prison labor and threatened them with legal action if they did not discontinue this practice. He was successful in getting companies to voluntarily stop their use of it. Mr. Griffith traveled to Bangladesh at the request of Bangladeshi lawyers to look into and report on the affects of the Special Powers Act, which permits individuals to be detained without probable cause or warrant by the authorities for up to a period of six months. He met with members of Parliament, the Minister of Justice, and the former Prime Minister in order to convince the government to abolish this illegal practice. He has since communicated his concerns to officials of the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute to make Bangladesh the target of possible intervention. Similarly, Mr. Griffith went to Ecuador where he represented James Williams, an American citizen who had been arrested and was being held in horrendous conditions without having had the benefit of a speedy trial. He discovered that almost ninety percent of the Ecuadorian prisoners and almost all of the forty American prisoners in that country had been incarcerated for a year and a half without trials and had been subjected to bribes by judges and corrupt officials. Mr. Griffith petitioned Congress and was successful in getting Congresswoman Corrine Brown of Florida to address this situation to the Ecuadorian and United States Ambassadors, in addition to accompanying her to Ecuador where she investigated this terrible situation. They not only received massive press coverage in Ecuador exposing this practice, but also in the United States. Upon her return home, Congresswoman Brown raised the issue on the floor of Congress and organized a number of congressional delegations including congressmen from different states who traveled to Ecuador on a number of occasions and which led to the suspension of all U.S. aid to Ecuador and the release of his client. Recently, he has coordinated the defense of American clients wrongfully accused of murder in Tortola, British West Indies and has called for a boycott of tourism to that country on television and in the media due to excessive human rights violations by that government. He is presently representing Ted Maher, the American male nurse, accused of arson, which led to the death of banker Edmond Safra, in Monaco. Along with his firm, ILDC, he works with the United Nations Alliance of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at the United Nations in New York. He is presently a member of:
|
|
International Legal Defense Counsel Disclaimer: The international human rights, international criminal law, or other international law information presented at this site should not be construed to be formal legal advice, nor the formation of a lawyer or attorney client relationship. Any results set forth herein are based upon the facts of that particular case and do not represent a promise or guarantee. Please contact an International Criminal Lawyer or International Law Attorney for a consultation on your particular international law matter. © 2008 Conaway & Strickler, P.C. - All rights reserved. International Criminal Defense Lawyers and International Legal Defense Attorneys. HOME l ABOUT
US l OUR SERVICES l CONTACT
US |