WASHINGTON // A US military jury at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, convicted Osama bin Laden's one-time driver yesterday on charges of providing material support for terrorism, ending the first trial in the controversial war crimes tribunal set up by the Bush administration to prosecute non-citizen "enemy combatants".
After deliberating for eight hours over three days, the jury of six convicted Salim Hamdan of Yemen on five counts of providing material support to a terrorist organisation, al Qa'eda, but acquitted him on separate charges of conspiracy. Lawyers for Hamdan, who pleaded not guilty at the trial's start, had argued he was simply a low-level employee of bin Laden - reported to have earned US$200 (Dh740) a month - unaware of the inner workings and plans of al Qa'eda. But military prosecutors portrayed him as having played a vital part in conspiring to carry out the September 11 attacks.
Hamdan's sentencing, by the same military panel, was to take place yesterday afternoon. He faces life in prison. His lawyers have said they intend to file an appeal, which could go all the way to the US Supreme Court. The verdict was immediately hailed as a victory - if a partial one - by the Bush administration, which authorised the creation of the special military tribunals in 2001 to try accused terrorism suspects.
But it failed to answer a question arguably even more fundamental than guilt or innocence: whether the proceedings themselves - outside the framework of the regular civil and military court system and without all the legal protections that system provides - were fair. The administration's antiterrorism policies, including the tribunals at Guantanamo and the sometimes harsh treatment of detainees there, have become a touchstone for criticism both here and overseas. Lawyers for the accused, along with human rights activists, have condemned as illegitimate and flawed the process that has allowed hundreds of so-called "enemy combatants" to be detained for years without charge or trial - then face proceedings in a court they say does not adhere to US standards of justice.
Hamdan's was the first trial to go forward under the Military Commissions Act, a law passed by Congress in 2006 in response to a Supreme Court ruling that found George W Bush did not as president have the authority to set up the war crimes tribunal system. As recently as June, the Supreme Court dealt Mr Bush another setback in ruling that prisoners being held at Guantanamo had a constitutional right to appeal their detention in civilian courts - a right the Military Commissions Act had taken away.
It was thought at the time that the ruling might prevent any of the trials from going forwards, but military prosecutors pushed ahead. Last month, a federal judge in Washington ruled that Hamdan's trial could proceed. It lasted two weeks. Shayana Kadidal, senior managing attorney at the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights's Guantanamo Global Justice Initiative, issued a statement yesterday condemning the trial, which proved nothing, he said, except that the tribunal system itself should be done away with.
"The trial will not create finality - the decision to keep these cases out of the ordinary criminal courts will produce years of appeals over novel legal issues raised by the untested military commissions system," Mr Kadidal said. "Even after those appeals are finished, the process will never be seen as legitimate by the world. "This case was the first trial run of the commissions system, and the decision proves nothing except that the system itself should be scrapped. Terrorism-related crimes should be tried in the time-tested domestic criminal justice system, a system whose rules have been designed over the centuries with one goal: to seek out the truth."
The White House maintained the trial was just. "We're pleased that Salim Hamdan received a fair trial," Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, said. "The military commission system is a fair and appropriate legal process for prosecuting detainees alleged to have committed crimes against the United States or our interests. We look forward to other cases moving forward to trial." About 80 other detainees are awaiting trial.
@Email:eniedowski@thenational.ae
