Sept. 11 Cases Unlikely to Reach Trial at Guantanamo This Year
Some Guantanamo detainees have been in court as they were arraigned or their lawyers argued motions, but none has yet seen a jury trial.
That isn’t likely to change anytime soon for suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks, the Washington Post reports. Many experts believe the first trials for these suspects won’t be held at Guantanamo until after President Bush leaves office.
Susan Crawford, who supervises the military commissions process, hasn’t yet referred any Sept. 11 cases to trial. Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, the top legal authority in the Pentagon for the military commissions, said he expects time-consuming litigation on issues.
“Assuming it’s referred, I expect there to be vigorous litigation by the defense community and the prosecution community,” he told the Post. “It will be helpful to the process for there to be a litigated case.”
Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch, said the issues include access to evidence and discovery. “Every little detail ends up being contested, because it’s an entirely new system of justice,” she told the Post.
The only verdict in the military commissions process came in March 2007 when Australian David Hicks pleaded guilty to terrorism charges and returned to his country to serve the sentence.
A military commissions case against Salim Ahmed Hamdan, the driver for Osama bin Laden, is scheduled to begin June 2. He has asked for a trial in a regular American court and is boycotting his military commissions trial. He will be tried in a high-security courtroom with a plexiglass wall that keeps observers and reporters separated from the proceedings.
