WASHINGTON — The Army on Wednesday dismissed all charges against a Muslim chaplain who was initially investigated for espionage, held in a military jail for 76 days, but eventually convicted of minor administrative charges of adultery and downloading pornography onto his government computer.
Army Gen. James. Hill, head of the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, overturned on appeal the nonjudicial conviction and written reprimand handed down March 22 to Capt. James Joseph Yee, formerly based at Fort Lewis. The decision marked the apparent end to a high-profile case in which critics accused the military of overzealousness and anti-Muslim fervor in its pursuit of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism.
At the time of his arrest in September, Yee was the Muslim chaplain at the detention center on the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where more than 600 suspected members of al-Qaida and the Taliban are being held as enemy combatants.
"While I believe that Chaplain Yee’s misconduct was wrong, I do not believe, given the extreme notoriety of his case in the news media, that further stigmatizing Chaplain Yee would serve a just and fair purpose," Hill said. "I believe in justice and I believe in fairness, and given all that has transpired, in all fairness I believe I have given Chaplain Yee justice."
Yee’s lawyer, Eugene Fidell of Washington, expressed disappointment that Hill had left a cloud over his client and had declined to offer the apology the chaplain had sought.
"He’s pronounced him guilty in the very course of finding him not guilty," said Fidell, an expert in military law.
Although no reprimand will appear on Yee’s record, Fidell said that his client’s future in the military was unclear.
Yee was arrested Sept. 10 at Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida and immediately placed in confinement without bail. The Army initially attempted to connect him to a purported spy ring at Guantanamo, but could not substantiate espionage allegations.
In dropping those criminal charges March 19, Army officials indicated that the decision was based not on Yee’s innocence but on the military’s reluctance to make sensitive information public.
Yee was convicted in a nonjudicial proceeding of minor administrative charges involving the adultery and pornography accusations.
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