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GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — The judge in the first Guantanamo Bay trial barred evidence yesterday that interrogators obtained from Osama bin Laden's driver, ruling he was subjected to "highly coercive" conditions in Afghanistan.
The ruling could have implications for the trial of Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, whose case is scheduled next.
The judge said the prosecution cannot use a series of interrogations conducted at the Bagram Air Base and Panshir, Afghanistan, because of the "highly coercive environments and conditions under which they were made."
Mr. bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan, says that at Bagram he was kept in isolation 24 hours a day with his hands and feet restrained, and that armed soldiers prompted him to talk by kneeing him in the back. He says his captors at Panshir repeatedly tied him up, put a bag over his head and knocked him to the ground. He also says he was subjected to sleep deprivation, and solitary confinement.
Mr. Khadr was also interrogated at Bagram, allegedly kept alone, and deprived of sleep.
Military judge Keith Allred, a Navy captain, left the door open for the prosecution to use statements Mr. Hamdan made at Guantanamo Bay, despite the defence's claims that all of his statements were tainted by alleged abuse.
Mr. Hamdan, who was captured at a roadblock in Afghanistan late in 2001, pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial, which will be closely watched as the first full test of the Pentagon's system for prosecuting alleged terrorists. He faces a maximum life sentence if convicted of conspiracy and aiding terrorism.
Michael Berrigan, the deputy chief defence counsel for Mr. Hamdan, described the ruling as a major blow to the tribunal system that allows hearsay and evidence obtained through coercion.
Lieutenant-Commander Bill Kuebler, Mr. Khadr's U.S. Defence lawyer, said last night he hadn't reviewed the decision yet, but added that he wouldn't be surprised if the ruling had little effect on the prosecution.
"That said, there's no question that the environment at Bagram was coercive, and indeed abusive - especially for a critically wounded 15-year-old boy," he said.
With a report from Omar El Akkad in Ottawa
