Bin Laden driver goes before US tribunal

The United States convened its first war crimes tribunal since World War Two yesterday and formally charged a Yemeni described as Osama bin Laden's driver with conspiracy to commit murder as a member of al Qaeda.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan went before a controversial panel of five US military officers for a pretrial hearing at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, in southeastern Cuba, where he has been held for more than two years.

The United States has charged four of the 585 al Qaeda or Taliban suspects at Guantanamo with conspiracy to commit war crimes, a charge that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Later this week the other three may go before the military tribunals authorised by President George W. Bush for trying foreign militants after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington in which 3,000 people were killed.

Human rights groups called the tribunals flawed because there is no independent judicial review and said the rules were stacked to produce convictions. They say the process is unfair because it applies only to non-US citizens.

The American Bar Association said the rules were being written by Washington policymakers rather than experienced military prosecutors, and ignored the long-standing judicial code used in other US military courts.

"It's brand new, it's broken and it's flawed," said Neal Sonnett, who was observing the hearings for the association.

The United States alleges Hamdan met bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1996 and became a personal driver and bodyguard for him and other high-ranking al Qaeda members.

With close-cropped black hair and a bushy mustache, Hamdan wore an ankle-length white robe and tan suit jacket for the hearing. He was not in handcuffs nor chains.

The lawyer assigned by the Pentagon to defend Hamdan, Navy Lt Cmdr Charles Swift, has filed suit in US federal court arguing that any trial should be held in that court rather than before a military tribunal. He planned to ask the tribunal to delay Hamdan's trial until that lawsuit is resolved.

Swift also planned to ask in the hearing that the charges be dropped on grounds that the tribunal officers and rules had been improperly influenced by Bush administration officials.

The military tribunals for suspects detained in the war on terror were set up under rules the Pentagon said were aimed at safeguarding information that threatens national security.

Defence lawyers will be allowed to see and question secret evidence during the trials but the defendants will not. The media has been given permission to cover the hearings but under tight reporting restrictions.

"Each of the accused will get a full and fair trial in a manner that is designed to protect our national security," said Lt Susan McGarvey, a spokeswoman for the tribunal.

Human rights groups are concerned over a host of issues. "US nationals who may have been picked up in the same place doing the same thing are subject to a completely different system of justice," said Jumana Musa, observing the tribunals for rights group Amnesty International.

The last US war crimes tribunals took place in 1942, when eight Germans were captured after sneaking into New York and Florida by submarine to blow up railroads, bridges and factories.