Hamdan Sentenced to Only 5.5 Years By Military Tribunal, Could Get Out in 5 Months
Prosecutors sought a prison term of at least 30 years for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, the Osama bin Laden chauffeur convicted this week of some, but not all, of the terrorism support charges against him. However, a jury of six military officers sentenced him to five-and-a-half years today.
With credit for the five years he has already been detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, awaiting trial, Hamdan would be eligible for release in about five months, according to the Washington Post. He could have been sentenced to as much as life in prison.
“Prosecutors had called for a sentence of at least 30 years in prison and implored jurors to consider a life term. And they ridiculed Hamdan’s statement before the military court at the U.S. detention facility here,” the newspaper writes.
Hamdan reportedly thanked the jurors for the sentence, and repeated an earlier apology for having worked for bin Laden.
“Hamdan had admitted working for Bin Laden in Afghanistan from 1997 to 2001 for $200 a month, but said he worked for wages, not to wage war on the U.S.,” writes the BBC. He was convicted of five counts of aiding terrorism, but acquitted of the most serious charges—two counts of conspiracy—as well as three other counts of aiding terrorism.
It is not clear that he will be released within months: “Pentagon officials have insisted they retain the right to keep Hamdan in prison whatever his sentence in the war crimes trial,” due to his status as a claimed enemy combatant, writes Agence France-Presse. However, “defense lawyers and human rights advocates say the United States will come under intense international pressure to release Hamdan if it refuses to free him even after he serves his sentence.”
Lawyers representing Salim Ahmed Hamdan have said they plan to turn to the nation’s civilian courts to appeal his conviction, the Christian Science Monitor reported earlier today, in a wrap-up of worldwide coverage of the case before the sentence was announced.
The historic case, which is the first war-crimes trial to be held by the U.S. since World War II, is the first of about 80 such tribunals expected to be held concerning Guantanamo detainees.
“Critics of the court say the trial did not adhere to American standards of justice and that Hamdan, a chauffeur, was not an important player in al-Qaida, a view echoed by the presiding judge in the case,” the Monitor writes.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Military Jury Convicts Bin Laden’s Driver of Supporting Terrorism”
