GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — A U.S. military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay has quit because his office suppressed evidence that could clear a young Afghan detainee of war-crimes charges, defense lawyers said Wednesday.
The prosecutor, Army Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, is now supporting a defense bid to dismiss war-crimes charges against Mohammed Jawad because of the alleged misconduct, according to Michael Berrigan, the deputy chief defense counsel for the Guantanamo tribunals.
The chief prosecutor, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, denied that his office withheld evidence and said Vandeveld told him he was leaving his post for “personal reasons.”
“All you have is someone who is disappointed because his superiors didn’t see the wisdom of his recommendation in a case,” Morris said.
Jawad, who was captured in Afghanistan when he was 16 or 17, is facing trial for allegedly throwing a grenade that injured two American soldiers and their Afghan interpreter in December 2002. He faces a maximum life sentence.
In a declaration submitted to the defense, Vandeveld said that prosecutors knew Jawad may have been drugged before the attack and that the Afghan Interior Ministry said two other men had confessed to the same crime, Berrigan said. Pentagon officials refused to provide a copy of the declaration.
At least three other Guantanamo prosecutors have quit over allegations of misconduct.
Also Wednesday, the proclaimed architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, who once declared that he wanted to be executed and become a martyr, mounted a vigorous defense during a pretrial hearing, even asking the military judge to remove himself.
Acting as his own attorney, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s readiness to raise challenges on behalf of himself and his four co-defendants ensured that their trial won’t be short. The case now has little chance of going to trial before the end of the Bush administration.
