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Gitmo detainee boycotts trial
A Guantanamo Bay detainee says that he wants nothing to do with his trial, calling it a legal farce and telling his lawyer not to defend him.

Ali al-Bahlul, a Yemeni who was allegedly Osama bin Laden's personal secretary, left the courtroom midway through his pretrial hearing and said he plans to return only on the days he is convicted and sentenced. "You can continue your legal play," al-Bahlul said before returning to his maximum-security cell at this US Navy base in southeast Cuba.

His lawyer, Air Force Maj. David Frakt, later told reporters that al-Bahlul "thinks the circus has gone on long enough."
Well alrighty then ...
Al-Bahlul, 39, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on charges of conspiracy, solicitation to commit murder and supporting terrorism. Military prosecutors say he created a propaganda video glorifying al-Qaida's October 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 American sailors.

Critics say a one-sided trial would damage the image of justice being served in the United States' first war-crimes tribunals since the World War II era.
And there are always critics. And they're always critical of everything we do. None of the critics are critical of Ali, near as I can tell.
The first Guantanamo trial ended last week with the conviction of Salim Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden who was sentenced to five and a half years in prison.

Last week, Gareth Pierce, a prominent human rights lawyer said that Hamdan's verdict has no legal justification because the verdict comes from a tribunal that were simply soldiers in a military trial without any legal credibility.
Gareth Pierce is just the sort of Brit solicitor you'd expect a journalist to go to for a quote. She's real big on defending terrorist thugs, and has surprisingly little compassion for their victims ...

Posted by: Fred 2008-08-16
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=247304