Osama's driver charged with conspiring to commit terrorism

8.25am - By ANDREW BUNCOMBE

WASHINGTON - In the first hearing of its kind for 60 years, a driver for Osama bin Laden was yesterday formally charged at a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay with conspiring to commit terrorism.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a 34-year-old Yemeni, was brought before the tribunal wearing a white flowing robe and a brown jacket, without shackles or handcuffs, to hear the charges read against him.

Mr Hamadan, who has reportedly admitted driving bin Laden but denied participating in terrorism, appeared to chuckle as he listened through headphones as a translator relayed the allegations to him in Arabic.

Just as Mr Hamdan apparently expressed his bemusement about the allegation, his lawyer used the pretrial hearing to challenge the legal basis for the tribunal. At one point the lawyer, Lt Cmdr Charlie Swift, questioned the motives of the military judge overseeing the hearing.

"This process goes against everything that we fought for in the history of the United States," Mr Smith said before the hearing started.

Yesterday's hearing at the prison camp located on a US Naval base on the southern tip of Cuba, was the beginning of the latest stage in the long and tortuous process to deal with approximately 600 prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay. Many of them, rounded up in the aftermath of the US war in Afghanistan, have been held there since the beginning of 2002.

Mr Hamdan was the first of four prisoners who are due to be charged this week when they appear before a panel of five military officers. A further 11 prisoners have been selected for the tribunals - among them two British prisoners.

During the hearing Mr Swift asked the other members of the panel to leave while he questioned the presiding officer, Colonel Peter Brownback, about his qualifications and motivations.

Asked why he volunteered for the task, Mr Brownback said he retired in 1999 and had 10 years' experience as a military judge.

"I thought I was good at it, and knowing the stresses and constraints brought on our military ... and recognising retired people could serve, I volunteered," he said.

Asked whether or not he thought the proceedings were lawful, Mr Brownback said he chose not to answer at the time.

The US has sought to portray Mr Hamdan not only as bin Laden's driver but as his bodyguard and said he delivered weapons to al Qaeda operatives. Mr Hamdan was formally charged with conspiracy as an al Qaeda member to commit war crimes, including attacking civilians and civilian targets, murder, destroying property and terrorism.

Mr Swift has argued that Mr Hamdan was a pilgrim who took a job at bin Laden's farm on his way to Tajikistan in 1996 or 1997. He said the defendant had no knowledge of al Qaeda activities and that he never took up arms against the US.

He said it was wrong the commission was going ahead even though no review has been held to formally determine whether Mr Hamdan is properly classified as an "enemy combatant". He also pointed out that a Supreme Court ruling earlier this summer had ruled that the prisoners had a right to challenge their detention in the US civilian courts.

In an affidavit filed earlier this year, Mr Hamdan said his incarceration in solitary confinement was affecting him psychologically. "I have not been permitted to see the sun or hear other people outside ... or talk with other people. I am alone except for a guard," he said.

"One month is like a year here, and I have considered pleading guilty in order to get out of here."

Human rights groups have strongly condemned the tribunals, in which the defendants have few legal rights and are not even permitted to see evidence that could prove their evidence if the hearing considers it to be classified.

"It's brand new, it's broken and it's flawed," said Neal Sonnett, an observer for the American Bar Association, who was watching the proceedings.

Unidentified sources in Yemen told the Associated Press that Mr Hamdan, also known as Saqr al Jaddawi, joined a Yemeni branch of the Egyptian militant group Islamic Jihad before al Qaeda was formed. It is said he was bin Laden's driver between February 1996 and November 24 2001.

- INDEPENDENT