Salim Ahmed Hamdan, the alleged al-Qaeda driver who faces an historic military trial next week, testified Tuesday that a female interrogator elicited information from him using sexually suggestive behavior that was offensive to him.
Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden, told a military court conducting a pretrial hearing that during questioning in 2002 a woman interrogator "came close to me, she came very close, with her whole body towards me. I couldn't do anything. I was afraid of the soldiers.''
"Did she touch your thigh?," asked Hamdan's lawyer, Charles Swift.
"Yes...I said to her 'what do you want?'' Hamdan said. "She said 'I want you to answer all of my questions.'''
"Did you answer all of her questions after that?'' Swift asked. Hamdan said he did.
Hamdan's lawyers are seeking to convince a judge to throw out incriminating statements Hamdan allegedly gave to interrogators at the military prison here, arguing that they were obtained through coercive interrogation tactics. His trial, scheduled for Monday, would be the first military commission conducted by the United States in more than half a century. |