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GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — The first U.S. war crimes trial since the Second World War began on Monday at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, nearly seven years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks prompted the U.S. war on terrorism.
Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, faces charges of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism and could face life in prison if convicted by a jury of U.S. military officers. He pleaded not guilty on Monday.
"This military commission is assembled," judge Keith Allred said after the potential jurors were sworn in.
The first trial before the controversial war-crimes court started 6½ years after the United States opened the prison camp in Cuba to jail suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters from the battlefields of Afghanistan.
Prosecutors contend that Mr. Hamdan, a Yemeni in his late 30s, was close to al-Qaeda's inner circle and was en route to a battle zone with two surface-to-air missiles in his car when he was captured in November, 2001, after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
His lawyers say he is not a member of al-Qaeda, and was merely a driver and mechanic in Mr. bin Laden's motor pool who needed the $200 monthly salary.
Mr. Hamdan is being tried in a hilltop courthouse overlooking Guantanamo Bay by a jury selected from a pool of 13 U.S. military officers flown in from around the world. The panel must be composed of at least five members.
As the trial began, the judge, U.S. Navy Captain Keith Allred, called a jury pool of uniformed military officers into the courtroom for questioning by lawyers on both sides. A conviction on charges of conspiracy and supporting terrorism could lead to a life sentence for Mr. Hamdan.
“You must impartially hear the evidence,” Capt. Allred told the potential jurors. “He must be presumed to be innocent.”
The 13 officers were hand-picked by the Pentagon and flown in from other U.S. bases over the weekend. Mr. Hamdan's lawyers asked if they had any friends or family affected by the Sept. 11 attacks to see if any should be excluded as too biased to serve. A minimum of five officers must be selected for a trial under tribunal rules.
Capt. Allred indicated earlier Monday he would not allow the government to use some of the evidence interrogators obtained from Mr. Hamdan during his detention in Afghanistan. Defence lawyers have argued that those statements were tainted by “coercive” techniques and the fact that interrogators did not advise him of a right against self-incrimination.
The U.S. has so far charged 20 Guantanamo prisoners and military officials say they expect to prosecute about 80 in all.
Human-rights advocates have complained about the conditions under which approximately 265 prisoners are held at the Guantanamo prison and about the legal system that the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush constructed after the Sept. 11 attacks to try those charged with crimes.
The Guantanamo naval base became a lightning rod for anger against and criticism of the United States as detainees, held for years without charge and denied the rights accorded to formal prisoners of war, complained of torture and abuse.
Only one case at Guantanamo has been resolved. Australian captive David Hicks pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism in a deal that averted a trial and limited his sentence to nine months in prison.
