Legal Commentary

Gitmo Hearings Underway

By Jeralyn

The Canadian press is doing a good job of covering the pre-trial hearings underway this week at Guantanamo. As I wrote Sunday, one pertains to Canadian Omar Khadr, now 21, who was captured at age 15 and has been held ever since. The defense is targeting Omar's interrogations and scored a partial victory today in getting the judge to order that correspondence between the U.S. and Canada about Omar be turned over.

The other hearing is that of Afghan Mohammed Jawad. Jawad was 16 when he was captured. His hearing yesterday did not go smoothly.

The military's 90 page document outlining charges against all charged detainees is here(pdf).

The ACLU is monitoring the hearings. In related news, (no link yet, received by e-mail) the ACLU is filing a lawsuit today "to force the government to release un-redacted transcripts in which 14 prisoners now held at Guantánamo Bay describe abuse and torture they suffered in CIA custody."

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 13, 2008 (boomark / email).