Judge’s Ruling Raises Concerns About Future of Guantanamo Military Trials

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The New York Sun

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba – A U.S. federal court ruled yesterday that Osama bin Laden’s driver was entitled to a legal hearing on whether he is a prisoner of war – a landmark opinion that could prevent military trials of alleged enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay.


The government said it would immediately seek a stay of that ruling and file an appeal.


It was the first time a federal court halted legal proceedings before U.S. military commissions, resurrected from World War II, at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. No trials have been held, although tentative trial dates for four detainees had been scheduled.


A U.S. District Court judge in Washington halted the pretrial proceedings of Salim Ahmed Hamdan,34,of Yemen, after his lawyers filed a petition. Mr. Hamdan – who is charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, murder, and terrorism and says that he never supported terrorism – was to be the first detainee tried, on December 7.


The judge rejected the American government’s contention that Mr. Hamdan and other detainees are not prisoners of war but enemy combatants, a classification affording fewer legal protections under the Geneva Conventions. Mr. Hamdan was declared an enemy combatant last month by a review tribunal during a hearing his lawyer was barred from.


“Unless and until a competent tribunal determines that petitioner is not entitled to protections afforded prisoners of war under Article 4 of the Geneva Convention…of August 12, 1949, he may not be tried by military commission for the offenses with which he is charged,” U.S. District Judge James Robertson said. “There is nothing in this record to suggest that a competent tribunal has determined that Hamdan is not a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions.”


The court also ruled that unless the military commission guidelines are changed to conform to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Mr. Hamdan cannot be tried by the commissions and must be moved from the pre-commission wing at the Camp Delta prison camp to the general population.


Four terror suspects set to go before the commissions were moved out of solitary cells recently to a pre-commission wing. In Washington, a U.S. Justice Department spokesman, Mark Corallo, said the government would appeal the ruling on the grounds that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to members or affiliates of Al Qaeda.


“We vigorously disagree with the court’s decision, and will seek an emergency stay of the ruling and immediately appeal,” Mr. Corallo said in a statement on the department’s Web site.


“We believe the President properly determined that the Geneva Conventions have no legal applicability to members or affiliates of Al Qaeda… The process struck down by the district court today was carefully crafted to protect America from terrorists while affording those charged with violations of the laws of war with fair process, and the Department will make every effort to have this process restored through appeal.”


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