Guantanamo prison terror suspects face initial hearings

ONE man allegedly worked as an al-Qaida accountant.

Another, a poet, is accused of crafting terrorist propaganda.

A third drove and protected Osama bin Laden.

A fourth, a baby-faced Australian, fought with Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban. None are accused of killing Americans.

These Guantanamo prisoners will be the first suspected terrorists to appear in preliminary hearings this week before their cases go to military commissions, or trials, in an unprecedented judicial process that foreign governments, lawyers and human rights groups have criticised.

While the maximum sentence the four men face is life in prison, the military commissions - the first in nearly 60 years since the United States tried German saboteurs - will have the power to sentence others to death, and there is no independent appeal process.

Significant challenges already exist ahead of the first hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

One defence attorney hasn’t seen his client in four months because of a government delay in giving clearance to a translator.

Another defence lawyer has withdrawn from the case after accepting another job, leaving her client with no representation.

Others say the broad restrictions, which include the military’s right to monitor conversations between attorneys and clients, will make it nearly impossible to win their cases.

“I’ve never gone into a hearing with so little information,” said Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Swift, a US military defence attorney representing Salim Ahmed Hamdan.

Hamdan, a 34-year-old Yemeni driver for Osama bin Laden, is scheduled to appear first on Tuesday on a charge of conspiracy to commit war crimes for his ties to al-Qaida. Two of the other men face similar conspiracy charges: Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman al Bahlul, aged 33, also of Yemen and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, born in 1960, of Sudan.

The fourth defendant is David Hicks, aged 28, of Australia, who faces the broadest set of charges: conspiracy to commit war crimes, as well as aiding the enemy, and attempted murder for allegedly firing at US or coalition forces in Afghanistan before his capture.

When many of the prisoners arrived at this US outpost in eastern Cuba in January 2002, the Bush administration was quick to declare them guilty: “These are killers,” US President George W. Bush said.

US Attorney General John Ashcroft described them as “uniquely dangerous.” After comments like those, critics doubt the detainees can receive a fair trial since top US officials also have the power to choose commission members.

Only four of Guantanamo detainees have been charged, while 11 others’ charges are pending approval. Most of the men in the camp have been refused access to attorneys.