Judge’s ruling may halt all Guantanamo trials
The U.S. war crimes tribunals at Guantanamo came to a halt Monday when a military judge dropped all the charges against a young Canadian. Army Col. Peter Brownback, the judge, said the military tribunal lacked jurisdiction over Canadian Omar Khadr because he did not meet the definition of those subject to trial under a law the U.S. Congress drafted last year.
The judge said a military review board had labeled Khadr an “enemy combatant” during a 2004 hearing in Guantanamo. But the Military Commissions Act adopted by the U.S. Congress in 2006 said only “unlawful enemy combatants” could be tried in the Guantanamo tribunals.
Brownback said Khadr did not meet that strict definition because there had been no formal proceeding designating him as unlawful.
Because none of the 380 foreign captives held at Guantanamo have been designated in that way, lawyers said they could not be tried unless they first faced proceedings reclassifying them as unlawful enemy combatants.
Brownback dismissed the charges against Khadr, but left open the possibility that charges could be re-filed if Khadr went back before a review board and was formally reclassified.
This was the latest setback for the Bush government’s efforts to put the Guantanamo detainees through some form of judicial process. It was forced to rewrite the rules last year after the U.S. Supreme Court deemed the old tribunals illegal.
Khadr, who was captured in a firefight in Afghanistan at age 15, was accused of killing a U.S. soldier with a grenade and wounding another in a battle at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002.
He was also charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism along with murder, attempted murder and spying, for allegedly conducting surveillance of U.S. military convoys in Afghanistan.
Khadr, now 20 and said by his family to be in poor health, wore a tan prison uniform and a shaggy beard during the brief hearing and showed no reaction to the surprise ruling.
One of the prosecutors, Army Capt. Keith Petty, said Khadr clearly met the definition of an unlawful combatant because he fought for al Qaeda, which was not part of the regular, uniformed armed forces of any nation.
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