A U.S. federal court ruled Monday that Osama bin Laden's driver was entitled to a legal hearing on whether he is a prisoner of war - a landmark opinion that could prevent military trials of alleged enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay. The government said it would immediately seek a stay of that ruling and file an appeal. It was the first time a federal court halted legal proceedings before U.S. military commissions, resurrected from World War II, at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. No trials have been held, although tentative trial dates for four detainees had been scheduled.
A U.S. District Court judge in Washington halted the pretrial proceedings of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, 34, of Yemen, after his lawyers filed a petition. Hamdan - who is charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, murder and terrorism and says that he never supported terrorism - was to be the first detainee tried, on Dec. 7. The judge rejected the U.S. government's contention that Hamdan and other detainees are not prisoners of war but enemy combatants, a classification affording fewer legal protections under the Geneva Conventions. Hamdan was declared an enemy combatant last month by a review tribunal during a hearing his lawyer was barred from. ``Unless and until a competent tribunal determines that petitioner is not entitled to protections afforded prisoners of war under Article 4 of the Geneva Convention ... of Aug. 12, 1949, he may not be tried by military commission for the offenses with which he is charged,'' U.S. District Judge James Robertson said. ``There is nothing in this record to suggest that a competent tribunal has determined that Hamdan is not a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions.'' |