GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — An Afghan detainee said Wednesday that he wants to boycott his trial at Guantanamo Bay and railed against the proceedings as unfair and illegal.
Mohammed Jawad, who is accused of throwing a grenade that wounded two U.S. soldiers, initially refused to attend his first pretrial hearing, delaying its start. After he appeared in the courtroom, the judge, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, warned Jawad that if he does not attend future sessions he could still be tried, convicted and sentenced in absentia.
In combative exchanges with the judge, Jawad said he has been mistreated at Guantanamo Bay — where the U.S. military holds about 275 men suspected of links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban — and denounced the tribunal system as unjust.
“I am innocent; I want justice and fairness,” said Jawad, who spoke through a Pashto translator and asked the judge whether journalists could hear his statements. “Since I was arrested, I’ve been treated unfairly. I have been tortured. I am a human being.”
The only specifics he offered were that he’s had a “bleeding lip” for more than a year and said that he suffers from constant headaches from the bright lights in his prison cell.
Jawad, who wore the orange uniform reserved for the least- compliant detainees, later slammed down his translation headphones and put his head down on the desk.
He did not enter a plea to charges of attempted murder and intentionally causing serious bodily injury, which could lead to a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Jawad’s Pentagon-appointed defense attorney, Army Col. James Sawyers, is leaving active-duty service and said the effort to find a replacement could cause a delay in bringing the case to trial.
Jawad said he was 16 when he was arrested and did not understand some of the rules the judge explained to him.
