Military Says It Can Repair Guantánamo Trial Defects
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
New York Times
WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 — In an effort to revive the war crimes trials at Guantánamo, military prosecutors argued on Friday in a special appeals court that defects in their cases identified by two military judges in June could be repaired and that the prosecutions could proceed.
“We’re attempting to start the trials,” said a military prosecutor, Francis Gilligan, a retired Army colonel. “We’ve sort of had a judicial stall.”
The entire system at Guantánamo was halted in June when the two military judges ruled that terrorism detainees there had not been properly declared unlawful enemy combatants. The judges said that was a requirement of the 2006 law that set up the system to try detainees.
The standstill has been a frustration for Bush administration officials who have struggled to establish a functioning war crimes system. It has also been a boon to critics who have described the legal system at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as a patchwork of invented procedures intended to strip detainees of fundamental rights.
“This is about the credibility of the United States and the perception around the world of our commitment to the rule of law,” a military defense lawyer, Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler, told reporters after the hearing. “This is a lawless process.”
(Continued here.)
New York Times
WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 — In an effort to revive the war crimes trials at Guantánamo, military prosecutors argued on Friday in a special appeals court that defects in their cases identified by two military judges in June could be repaired and that the prosecutions could proceed.
“We’re attempting to start the trials,” said a military prosecutor, Francis Gilligan, a retired Army colonel. “We’ve sort of had a judicial stall.”
The entire system at Guantánamo was halted in June when the two military judges ruled that terrorism detainees there had not been properly declared unlawful enemy combatants. The judges said that was a requirement of the 2006 law that set up the system to try detainees.
The standstill has been a frustration for Bush administration officials who have struggled to establish a functioning war crimes system. It has also been a boon to critics who have described the legal system at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as a patchwork of invented procedures intended to strip detainees of fundamental rights.
“This is about the credibility of the United States and the perception around the world of our commitment to the rule of law,” a military defense lawyer, Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler, told reporters after the hearing. “This is a lawless process.”
(Continued here.)
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