War crimes hearings to begin for Guantanamo prisoners

1.00pm - By JANE SUTTON

US NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - Four suspected al Qaeda fighters will be formally charged with war crimes this week as the US military opens the first legal hearings for foreign prisoners captured during the war in Afghanistan and held at a remote US Navy base in Cuba.

Beginning on Tuesday, the prisoners from Australia, Sudan and Yemen will appear separately, unshackled and in civilian clothing before a panel of five US officers who will read the charges against them at the arraignments, officials at the Guantanamo base said on Sunday.

The pretrial hearings in the first US military tribunals since the World War 2 have frustrated human rights activists, who consider the trials fundamentally unfair and heightened security concerns among the officers involved, who fear retaliatory attacks by al Qaeda.

"Right now the heightened state of tension on this island is tangible," said Col David McWilliams, a spokesman for the commission set up to conduct the trials.

The defendants, among 585 currently held at the base, were captured during the US-led war against al Qaeda and the Taleban government of Afghanistan in 2001. All four are charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes and could be imprisoned for life if convicted, said Navy Lt Susan McGarvey, a military lawyer and also a spokeswoman for the trial commission.

If acquitted, they still could be held indefinitely under Bush administration policy that considers them enemy combatants in the ongoing war on terror prompted by the September 11, 2001, attacks that killed about 3000 people in the United States. They could only be freed if a separate military panel finds they are not a danger and have no information that could prevent future attacks, military officials said.

"They could still be held, depending on the outcome of the war on terror, or the decision they are no longer a threat or an intelligence (concern)," McWilliams said.

Defendant David Hicks of Australia is accused of fighting for al Qaeda in Afghanistan and conducting surveillance of US and British embassies on its behalf. He faces charges of attempted murder and aiding the enemy, in addition to the conspiracy charge.

The other three are an alleged driver and security guard for Osama bin Laden, Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen, and two men described by the military as bin Laden bodyguards, Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul of Yemen and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi of Sudan. They are accused of providing security for the network that carried out the Sept 11 attacks.

This week's hearings will be held in a courtroom set up at the base. About 60 spectators, including military officials, journalists and legal and human rights observers, will attend. Hicks' parents are expected to attend his hearing.

Spectators will be banned when classified information is discussed. The prisoners' lawyers, provided by the military, can be present at those times and can question the evidence, but the prisoners cannot, McGarvey said.

The hearings will address what evidence can be used and whether statements from the defendants and witnesses were obtained through coercion, specifically through alleged abuses at prisons run by the US military. Defence lawyers are also expected to challenge whether the five panel members are impartial, McGarvey said.

The panel includes a presiding officer who is a lawyer, Army Col Pete Brownback, and four military officers who have no legal training. Brownback will run the proceedings, but all decisions, including the final verdict, will be made by a majority vote among the five, McGarvey said. The defendants are presumed innocent and must be proven guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt," she said.

Some defendants may enter pleas this week and all are expected to plead innocent. However, most are expected to defer their pleas until they have had more time to prepare their cases with defence lawyers.

Human rights activists have opposed the tribunals in part because the trials and the appellate reviews will all be conducted within the military, subject to the same chain of command that captured and charged the defendants. They have also denounced the proceedings because they apply only to foreign citizens.

- REUTERS