Lawyer who ID'd Gitmo inmates disbarred

• Tweet

TOPEKA, Kan., Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Matthew Diaz, a former U.S. Navy lawyer who served a short prison term for releasing the names of Guantanamo inmates, has lost his Kansas law license.

The state Supreme Court issued an order for Diaz's disbarment Wednesday, The Kansas City (Mo.) Star reported. Diaz had been suspended from practicing law.

The justices cited Diaz's "admitted selfish reasons for the clandestine disclosure of classified information." He told the court earlier this fall that he had been influenced by the belief that inmates at Guantanamo should have had the same legal rights his father, a nurse, received when he was charged with killing patients and convicted.

Diaz was convicted in 2007 of releasing classified information and was given a dishonorable discharge from the Navy and a six-month sentence. He told the court he had been working as a non-lawyer with a public defender's office in New York and hoped to apply for a law license there.

Diaz graduated from the law school at Washburn University in Topeka, Kan.