SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A U.S. military judge has denied prisoner-of-war status to a Guantanamo detainee, putting the former driver for Osama bin Laden in line to be one of the first to face a war crimes tribunal at the base.
The judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, rejected defense arguments that Salim Ahmed Hamdan was a POW and thus beyond the jurisdiction of the Guantanamo tribunals under international law.
Allred said there is credible evidence the Yemeni was bin Laden’s personal driver from 1997 to 2001, occasionally served as a bodyguard for the al-Qaeda leader and sometimes picked up and delivered weapons.
“The government has carried its burden of showing … that the accused is an alien unlawful enemy combatant,” Allred wrote in a ruling released Thursday by the military.
The ruling is a victory for the Pentagon, which has struggled to prosecute suspected terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo amid repeated legal challenges. The decision clears the way for a trial that could start by spring.
“This is a sign that we will move forward,” said Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, the legal adviser to the military tribunal system.
To underscore that point, Hartmann noted the military prepared charges Thursday against Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al-Darbi, a Saudi prisoner at Guantanamo accused of helping organize an al-Qaeda plot to attack a ship in the Strait of Hormuz off Yemen.
The military has charged three of about 290 detainees now held at Guantanamo on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaeda or the Taliban. It has charges pending against two, including al-Darbi.
The cases against Hamdan and Canadian Omar Khadr are the furthest along, and lawyers say they do not know who will face the first U.S. military tribunals since the World War II era.
Hamdan, who U.S. military records show is about 37, faces up to life in prison if the tribunal convicts him of conspiracy and supporting terrorism. He was captured in a car with two surface-to-air missiles by Afghan troops in November 2001 and turned over to U.S. forces.
His military defense lawyer, Navy Lt. Brian Mizer, said he is disappointed and may make the ruling part of an eventual appeal if Hamdan is convicted.
“I think the evidence was that he was a prisoner of war,” Mizer said. “He was caught taking conventional weapons to a conventional force, and … it’s not a crime to be a soldier.”
