A US military judge agreed to decide whether Osama bin LadenÂ’s driver is a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions, a designation that could prevent the United States from trying him in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals. The judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, said in a ruling on Monday that he would undertake a POW review for Yemeni prisoner Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who is charged in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. If Hamdan is found to be a POW, he could be tried by court-martial, but not by the special military tribunals the United States set up at its naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to try non-US citizens on terrorism charges. Such a finding could cast further doubts on the widely criticised and still evolving Guantanamo court system that has yet to see a trial completed. The lone conviction at Guantanamo was the result of a negotiated guilty plea for an Australian now serving a nine-month prison term in his homeland.
Defence lawyers said he was a civilian driver and support worker who should be considered a prisoner of war and handled according to the Geneva Conventions outlining the treatment of war captives.