In the first military trial of a Guantánamo Bay detainee, Osama bin Laden's former driver was found guilty of providing support to al-Qaeda but acquitted of a charge he conspired with his former boss to commit terrorist acts.
A six-member jury concluded that Salim Ahmed Hamdan’s relationship with bin Laden — Hamdan served as a bodyguard and a driver, one of the few allowed to carry a rifle around bin Laden — amounted to illegal support. Although Hamdan was cleared of conspiracy, he faces up to life in prison for his conviction on the other charge.
The jury will decide his sentence in hearing later this afternoon. A Pentagon official will automatically review Hamdan's conviction, which will then be appealed to a military appellate court. His attorneys could then appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and ultimately the Supreme Court.
The Washington Post has more here.
Forty years ago the US Government conducted another top secret court-martial with fabricated evidence, witness tampering, a subsequent recantation which was secreted for two years and ultimately ruled as "newly found evidence and fraud on the court" resulting in the conviction for premeditated murder being overturned and eventually dismissed because a conviction at a new trial "would be highly unlikely". http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id1.html
Posted by: John McCarthy | August 06, 2008 at 01:46 PM