Tom Johnson

Who is Tom Johnson?

Tom Johnson is a Portland lawyer, working for the firm, Perkins Coie.

Johnson volunteered to serve as a lawyer to a Guantanamo detainee, a 33 year old citizen of Kazakhstan named Ilkham Turdbyavich Batayev.

Batayev describes being kidnapped by fundamentalist Muslims allied to the Taliban during a trip to Tajikstan to sell fruit, who then traded him to the Taliban, who used him as a kitchen slave. Following the American bombing, everyone fled the Taliban camp where he was held. Batayev described fleeing and subsequently being captured by fundamentalist Muslims allied to the USA in return for a bounty.