A Yemeni laborer who worked as a driver on Osama bin Laden’s farm in Afghanistan is likely to be one of the first detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba tried before a military tribunal, his lawyer said last night. But Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, who represents Yemeni inmate Salim Ahmed Hamdan, said the 34-year-old father of two "was not a terrorist or a member of al Qaeda or the Taliban" when he worked as a chauffeur on bin Laden’s farm in Kandahar, Afghanistan. "He had a job there for the sole purpose of supporting himself and his family," Swift said.
Before his lawyer spoke publicly about the case yesterday, little information had emerged publicly about Hamdan except that he was in a group of six detainees designated last month as eligible to face trial by special military tribunals. Swift’s defense of Hamdan is one of the first for any of the detainees, but such legal advocacy could soon become common during the legal battles expected as the United States gears up for the tribunals. Military sources said Hamdan, who was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001 by the Northern Alliance militia allied with the United States, has cooperated with interrogators at the U.S. Navy detention facility. He has been picked as one of the first to be tried because the government hopes he will plead guilty and testify about what he witnessed as bin Laden’s occasional chauffeur, the sources said.
Defense lawyers knowledgeable about Hamdan’s case said another option for the military was to consider granting Hamdan immunity in exchange for his testimony, instead of charging him to get it. "Mr. Hamdan freely admits he was employed by Mr. bin Laden, and on occasion drove him around," Swift said. "But he adamantly denies he was a member of al Qaeda or engaged in any terrorist act." Hamdan also denies ever taking up arms against the United States or anyone else, the lawyer said. "My client doesn’t understand why he’s being held," Swift said, adding that "he implores the president to allow him a civilian trial in which he may demonstrate his innocence." Swift said that Hamdan, a laborer in Yemen with a fourth-grade education, traveled to Afghanistan in 1996 with the goal of fighting with a Muslim militia in neighboring Tajikistan that opposed the government there. But bad weather and border guards prevented him from entering Tajikistan. Instead, he stayed in Afghanistan with his wife, and soon had a daughter.
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At some point in the late 1990s, he got a job on bin Laden’s farm driving workers, equipment, produce and sometimes the al Qaeda leader himself, who was then wanted by authorities around the globe. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Hamdan borrowed a car to take his then-2-year-old daughter and pregnant wife to safety in Pakistan, then drove back to Afghanistan to return the car. It was then that he was captured. Swift said he has been "specifically forbidden" by military superiors from discussing anything that happened to Hamdan at Guantanamo Bay before he visited him in the past two weeks for legal consultations, including whether officials had discussed the prospect of a plea agreement with Hamdan. Swift said that he also cannot discuss possible plea discussions. |