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Judge Refuses to Postpone Trial of Bin Laden's Driver
 A federal judge on Thursday refused to postpone the first military trial set for next week at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, rebuffing a last-minute plea from lawyers for Salim Hamdan, an accused member of Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's former driver. Judge James Robertson, of the district court in Washington, ruled that Mr. Hamdan's claims that the military commission he faces is unconstitutional can be appealed to a civilian court only after his military trial is completed.The ruling clears the way for the start of the first trial of a detainee at the prison complex in Cuba, opened in 2002 to hold prisoners captured in the campaign against terrorism. The trials have been delayed for years, in part by courts that found legal fault with the commissions created to try people designated by the government as "unlawful enemy combatants." It was Judge Robertson who ruled in 2004 that the original procedures set for military commissions by President Bush were inadequate, a finding later upheld by the Supreme Court. In response, Congress in 2006 passed the Military Commissions Act, setting up new procedures for the trials. On Thursday, after hearing two hours of arguments from lawyers for Mr. Hamdan and the government, Judge Robertson said the Congressional action was sufficient to permit the trial to begin. "Hamdan is to face a military commission designed by Congress under guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court," the judge said. Judge Robertson noted that his ruling applies only to the case of Mr. Hamdan and is not binding on the many other Guantanamo cases pending before other judges. He also did not rule on what he said was a central question, the constitutionality of a provision of the Military Commissions Act that permits only limited appeals by Guantanamo detainees to a single court, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Posted by: Fred 2008-07-18 |
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