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Guantanamo prosecutors seek delays in pending trials

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Military prosecutors at Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday sought to delay the trials of three suspected terrorists while the US government revises the military commission system used to try them. At the second day of hearings held at the detention facility since US President Barack Obama took office, judges granted a government request to postpone proceedings in the case of accused al-Qaeda member Mohammed Kamin, but did not rule on similar motions in the cases of Omar Khadr and Ibrahim Ahmed al Qosi. Military prosecutors said that, since changes made to the military commissions structure may invalidate the current proceedings or require rehearing on specific issues, the court should stay the cases until the revisions are complete. Defense counsel for the detainees said that the delays would violate American legal principles by endorsing indefinite detention. Commander Suzanne Lachelier, defense counsel for alleged 9-11 co-conspirator Ramzi Binalshibh, predicted that no more full trials would be completed at Guantanamo before its closure in January 2010, due to the inefficiencies created by the rules of evidence and the systemic review. An anonymous US official said on Wednesday that more than 60 detainees had been cleared by the US government for transfer to other countries. Last week, a former Guantanamo prosecutor told the House Judiciary Committee that the military commission system is "broken beyond repair". Also last week, a former US Navy Judge Advocate General told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) should be repealed rather than reformed. Last month, that committee approved a version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 that would reform the use of classified, coerced, and hearsay evidence and allow defendants greater access to exculpatory evidence. Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) said that the changes were necessary for the military commissions to be considered "regularly constituted courts" within the meaning of the 2006 Supreme Court decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. In May, US President Barack Obama announced that he would use the controversial military commissions system to try some Guantanamo Bay detainees. The move drew criticism from human rights groups, which called the plan "fatally flawed," continuing a long line of criticism of the commissions for admitting some evidence that is barred from federal court, including hearsay or coerced confessions. In January, Obama issued an executive order directing the military prison be closed "as soon as practicable and no later than one year from the date of this order."

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on July 16, 2009 (boomark / email).