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Lawyers Honor Hero Who Helped Rescue Jessica
Friday, May 09, 2003
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WILMINGTON, Del. — An Iraqi lawyer who helped U.S. troops rescue prisoner of war Jessica Lynch (search) was honored Thursday by a state lawyers' group.
The Delaware Bar Association (search) said the award granted to Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief (search), 32, reflects the best quality of lawyers -- helping defenseless people being treated unfairly.
Al-Rehaief did not make remarks after receiving the award, and he declined to speak with reporters. The bar association asked the media to avoid taking photographs of al-Rehaief, his wife and 5-year-old daughter for security reasons.
The bar association also presented al-Rehaief with $1,000.
"He is genuinely honored to have been recognized by his fellow international attorneys," said Claire de Matteis, senior counsel to Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and a member of the bar association's executive committee. " ... He makes you proud to be an attorney."
De Matteis presented the award to al-Rehaief after the senator, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, was detained in Washington by Senate business.
Al-Rehaief and his family were granted asylum in the United States last month and plan to settle in the Washington, D.C., area. He has been offered a job with the Livingston Group, a Washington lobbying firm, de Matteis said.
Pfc. Lynch, a 20-year-old Army supply clerk from Palestine, W.Va., was captured March 23 after her 507th Maintenance Company convoy was ambushed in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. She was rescued from a hospital in the city on April 1 after al-Rehaief mapped out her location for U.S. Marines.
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