EXCLUSIVE BOOK LAUNCH: THE MAN WHO REFUSED TO PLEAD GUILTY
Event Details
EXCLUSIVE BOOK LAUNCH: THE MAN WHO REFUSED TO PLEAD GUILTY
IN CONVERSATION WITH UZAIR PARACHA
FRIDAY 22 MAY - 5PM - 7PM BST
With complete conviction of his own innocence, Uzair Paracha spent 15 years in US supermax prisons fighting for his release. As evidence of torture being central to his conviction began to be revealed at Guantanamo Bay, the FBI began a process of convincing Uzair to take a deal in order to be released early, but he refused - he is the man who refused to plead guilty - having made a pact with God that he would only leave prison an innocent man. CAGE International hosts Uzair for the official launch of his memoir, recounting how he left the US exonerated of a crime he never committed.
Speakers
Dr Asim Qureshi
Research Director
Dr Asim Qureshi is the Research Director at CAGE. He graduated in Law (LLB Hons) LLM, specialising in International Law and Islamic Law. In 2018, he completed his PhD in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent. He has published a wide range of NGO reports, academic journals and articles.
Since 2010, he has been advising legal teams involved in defending death penalty trials in the US and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
He is also the author and editor of three books so far: In 2009, "Rules of the Game: Detention, Deportation, Disappearance" (Hurst, Columbia UP), "A Virtue of Disobedience" (Unbound and ByLine Books), and "I Refuse to Condemn: Resisting racism in times of national security" (Manchester University Press).
An avid reader, Asim launched thebookslamist.com, a book review platform dedicated to encouraging readers to reflect on how books have made them think.
Denny LeBoeuf
Retired Capital Defence Attorney
Denny LeBoeuf is a retired capital defence attorney based in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was the Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s John Adams Project, assisting the capitally charged detainees on Guantanamo in the military commissions, and was formerly the Director of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project, and the Director of the Louisiana Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana.
Uzair Paracha
Author
In 2003, 23-year-old Uzair Paracha was arrested by the US government and branded a terrorist. A Pakistani man living in New York, he was accused of providing ‘material support’ to al-Qaeda – a vague, catch-all charge invented in the chaotic aftermath of 9/11. He was offered a plea deal but refused, knowing he was innocent.
What followed was a nightmare: years in solitary confinement, a trial built on fear instead of facts, and a justice system determined to make an example of someone who they thought looked the part. Uzair’s case wasn’t an anomaly: it was the blueprint. The Man Who Refused to Plead Guilty is more than one man’s story: it’s a stark reflection of the path the US chose after 9/11. A path that reached for demonisation before understanding, punishment before truth. Uzair Paracha’s experience lays bare the human cost of a vengeful nation, how a heart filled with principle can find some small semblance of justice.
