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Hamdan: A joke of a "trial"

"After 7 years, the Bush administration got its first war crimes conviction but not of anyone who plotted the 9/11 attacks, but that of Osama bin Laden's driver. Yemeni national Salim Ahmed Hamdan's crime was to chauffeur bin Laden in Afghanistan, which the government argued allowed bin Laden to plot attacks against the United States. Hamdan was convicted for material support for terrorism and could spend the rest of his life in prison. In fact, whatever sentence a court may determine, the Bush administration claims that it has the authority to hold him indefinitely as an "enemy combatant" until the cessation of hostilities in the so-called "war on terror."

Hamdan, who has a fourth-grade education and was earning $200 a month as one of Osama bin Laden's drivers, has been detained for almost seven years now. It was Hamdan's case in 2006 that led the Supreme Court to rule that President Bush lacked the authority to constitute military tribunals, but Congress subsequently enacted the Military Commissions Act (MCA) to re-constitute those tribunals, rendering Hamdan's victory worthless to him.

I observed Hamdan's trial in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba for Human Rights First. At trial, a parade of government criminal investigators testified that Hamdan was not involved in any terrorist attacks, such as the USS Cole bombing, the Kenya embassy bombings, and or even 9/11. But Hamdan was charged with conspiracy and providing material support to a terrorist organization. The six-member jury, however, convicted him of material support of terrorism. Material support and conspiracy are prosecutable under federal criminal law and many persons have been prosecuted in federal courts under such crimes post 9/11. Hamdan could thus very well have been prosecuted in federal court but the government instead decided to make such offenses war crimes. This in legal terms is ex post facto application of the law-making something a crime when it was not a crime at the time it was committed -- and is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution."

So writes Sahr Muhammedally in a piece on The Huffington Post. There can be little doubt that not only was the whole process a travesty of any sort of justice, that the matter will be appealed and that we haven't heard the last of Mr Hamdan. Meanwhile, read the full piece reporting on the so-called trial here.

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