Military tribunal charges bin Laden’s driver

OSAMA bin Laden’s chauffeur was officially charged yesterday at the first US military tribunal since World War II.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a 34-year-old Yemeni, wore headphones to hear the interpreter at a pretrial hearing where his lawyer challenged the process as unfair.

He asked for the allegations against him to be repeated, then appeared to chuckle and smile after the charges of conspiracy as an al-Qaida member to commit war crimes, including murder, were explained a second time.

Hamdan has said he earned a pittance for his family as the al-Qaida leader’s driver before the September 11 attacks and denies taking part in terrorist activities. US officials allege he served as bin Laden’s bodyguard and delivered weapons to his operatives.

The Pentagon alleges that Hamdan - also known as Saqr al Jaddawi - was bin Laden’s driver and bodyguard between February 1996 and November 24, 2001. It says he transported weapons to al-Qaida operatives, trained at an al-Qaida camp and drove in convoys that carried bin Laden.

The charge sheet does not accuse him over of committing specific acts of violence or the operational planning of any attacks.

Hamdan was the first detainee to appear before a US military commission that allows for secret evidence and no federal appeals - the only such proceeding since World War II.

“This process goes against everything we fought for in the history of the United States,” Hamdan’s attorney Lieutenant Commander Charlie Swift said.

Lt Cmdr Swift said he plans to ask that charges be dismissed, because Hamdan was given no opportunity to contest his “enemy combatant” classification in US civilian courts. He also has filed a lawsuit alleging that the commissions violate US and international law.

In the hearing, he began questioning panel members’ qualifications and practices, as well as their views on Islam and military operations against al-Qaida and the Taliban of Afghanistan.

Lt Cmdr Swift says his client was a pilgrim who took a job at bin Laden’s farm on his way to Tajikistan in 1996 or 1997. He says Hamdan had no knowledge of bin Laden’s activities and never took up arms against the US.

Human rights groups have criticised the holding of the men as enemy combatants, a classification giving them fewer legal protections than prisoners of war.

Hamdan and three others being arraigned this week face life in prison, though some defendants could face the death penalty.