GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba – One man allegedly worked as an al-Qaida accountant. Another, a poet, is accused of crafting terrorist propaganda. A third chauffeured and protected Osama bin Laden. A fourth, an Australian, fought with Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban. None are accused of killing Americans.
These Guantanamo prisoners will be the first suspected terrorists arraigned in preliminary hearings this week before their cases go to military commissions, or trials, in an unprecedented judicial process that foreign governments, lawyers and human rights groups have criticized.
While the maximum sentence the four men face is life in prison, the military commissions will have the power to sentence others to death, and there is no independent appeal process.
Significant challenges already exist ahead of the first hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
One defense attorney hasn’t seen his client in four months because of a government delay in giving clearance to a translator. Another defense lawyer has withdrawn from the case after accepting another job, leaving her client with no representation. Others say the broad restrictions, which include the military’s right to monitor conversations between attorneys and clients, will make it nearly impossible to win their cases.
“I’ve never gone into a hearing with so little information,” said Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Swift, a military defense attorney representing Salim Ahmed Hamdan.
Hamdan, a 34-year-old Yemeni driver for Osama bin Laden, is scheduled to be arraigned first on Tuesday on a charge of conspiracy to commit war crimes for his ties to al-Qaida.
Two of the other men face similar al-Qaida conspiracy charges: Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman al Bahlul, 33, also of Yemen; and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, born in 1960, of Sudan.
The fourth defendant is David Hicks, 29, of Australia, who faces the broadest set of charges – conspiracy to commit war crimes as well as aiding the enemy, and attempted murder for allegedly firing at U.S. or coalition forces in Afghanistan before his capture.
One key issue the commission authorities expect to come up: the use of information against the men that could have come from interrogations at Guantanamo and other overseas outposts. Several detainees released from Guantanamo Bay claim to have made false confessions after interrogations, which can last anywhere from two to 15 hours.
Only four of Guantanamo detainees have been charged so far, while 11 others’ charges are pending approval. Most of the men in the camp have been refused access to attorneys.
All are considered enemy combatants, a classification that unlike prisoners of war, allots the men fewer protections under the Geneva Conventions. Military commissions are reserved for foreign-born captives and have lower standards for prosecution than American civilian courts.
At this week’s open preliminary hearings, expected to last four days, charges will be read to the men, who can enter pleas, and their lawyers can make motions. It could be months before the military commissions, or trials, begin.
Associated Press
Army Col. David McWilliams shows the courtroom at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba on Sunday. Preliminary hearings will be held there this week for four terrorism suspects.
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