First prisoners face US military tribunals

US President George W Bush yesterday designated six prisoners to become the first people who could be tried before military tribunals, drawing renewed criticism from defence lawyers of the secretive special courts.

Officials refused to identify the six suspects being held in US custody and suggested their identities might be kept secret during any military trial.

That drew criticism from the chairman of the American Bar Association’s task force on the treatment of detainees in the war on terrorism.

“The State Department issues a report every year in which it criticises those nations that conduct trials before secret military tribunals. What I’m hearing sounds alarmingly like something similar,” said Neal Sonnett, also a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers.

“If they’re going to be charged by military tribunals then they have a right to full due process and the public has a right to know who’s being tried and what the charges are and the government has an obligation to run these tribunals in a fair and transparent way.”

All six suspects are believed to be either members of the al-Qaida terrorist network or otherwise involved in terrorism, said two Pentagon officials who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

Australian detainee David Hicks, who is being held at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, likely will be one of the six, said his lawyer, Stephen Kenny. Australia’s Federal Attorney General Daryl Williams said Friday that Hicks is among those to be tried.

Hicks, a Muslim who fought with the Kosovo Liberation Army, called his parents 17 days after the September 11 attacks to say he was with the Taliban. He also allegedly threatened to kill an American upon his arrival at Guantanamo, US officials said.

Some of the six may have attended terrorist training camps and some were involved in raising money and recruiting for terrorist groups, the officials said. Under Mr Bush’s order creating the military tribunals, only people who are not US citizens may be subject to such trials.

British and Australian officials said yesterday that two Britons and one Australian detained in Guantanamo Bay are among those who likely would face a US military trial.

Although Pentagon officials would not say where the tribunals might be held, legal experts said the trials likely would be at Guantanamo. Officials at Guantanamo Bay have begun planning court facilities and an execution chamber, since the tribunals may consider imposing the death penalty.