18Dec03-Charles Aldinger-Court Rebukes Bush as Second Detainee Gets Lawyer
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Yemeni man being held at a U.S. military prison in Cuba for al Qaeda and Taliban suspects has been provided with a military lawyer, the second of hundreds of detainees at the base to receive defense counsel, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
Salim Ahmen Hamdan is expected to meet with the lawyer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay "in the near future," the Defense Department said in a statement.
None of the nearly 660 prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay has yet been charged with any crimes although Pentagon officials have suggested that military trials for some of the detainees could begin soon.
Most of those at the base were arrested during the U.S.-led war that toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan. Washington accused the Taliban of harboring al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, believed behind the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
Many have been held at Guantanamo for two years without charges, drawing sharp criticism from civil rights groups.
Hamdan is one of six detainees at Guantanamo who has been designated by President Bush to be eligible for possible trial before a military commission in the U.S.-declared war on terror.
One of the other five, Australian David Hicks, was recently also granted access to a lawyer by the Pentagon. While the Pentagon has stipulated that Hicks would not face the death penalty even if convicted of a serious crime, it made no such statement in connection with Hamdan on Thursday.
FEDERAL COURT RULES AGAINST PENTAGON
Thursday's announcement came almost at the same hour as a federal appeals court in San Francisco said the Bush administration lacked authority to imprison so-called "enemy combatants" indefinitely, sending a lawsuit on behalf of a man detained at the Guantanamo base back to a lower court.
The judges of the U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, said the indefinite imprisonment was inconsistent with U.S. law and raised serious concerns under international law.
Pentagon officials declined on Thursday to say when or where Hamdan was arrested.
"Military commission rules require that a detailed defense counsel be available to an accused sufficiently in advance of trial to prepare a defense," Thursday's announcement on Hamdan said.
"Although he has not been charged, Hamdan is one of six detainees Bush determined to be subject to his military order of November 13, 2001," establishing the commission system for possible military trials of foreign suspects held in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism, the Pentagon added.
"Hamdan is presumed innocent of any criminal charges until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt at a military commission," it said.
The pentagon also noted that in addition to a free military lawyer, any suspect brought before a commission had the right to retain a civilian defense counsel.
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