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Guantanamo detainee lawyers raise torture claims
The attorney for a Guantanamo detainee accused of masterminding the USS Cole bombing has requested that charges be dropped following comments from a Pentagon official regarding torture.
- AP
- Published: 23:33 January 16, 2009
San Juan: The attorney for a Guantanamo detainee accused of masterminding the USS Cole bombing has requested that charges be dropped following comments from a Pentagon official regarding torture.
Navy Lieutenant Commander Stephen Reyes said Thursday that it is likely the judge who oversees the military trials was not informed about his client's treatment.
"It's either deliberate ignorance, or they just don't think what happened in CIA custody is relevant at all to these cases," said Reyes, whose client is Abd Al Rahim Al Nashiri.
Al Nashiri could face the death penalty if found guilty on charges related to the 2000 attack on the Navy destroyer that killed 17 US sailors in the Yemeni port of Aden. The Pentagon formally approved war crimes charges against him last month.
Waterboarding
Reyes' request came after Pentagon official Susan Crawford said she refused to refer charges against another detainee because she believes he was tortured.
She told The Washington Post in an interview published Wednesday that the US tortured Saudi Mohammad Al Qahtani in 2002. She is the first senior Bush administration official to make such a statement.
Al Nashiri is one of three terrorist suspects the CIA has said it subjected to waterboarding in secret overseas prisons.
"How does this treatment not qualify as 'torture' under Crawford's 'legal definition'?" said Nancy Hollander, who also represents Al Nashiri.
Joseph DellaVedova, spokesman for the Office of Military Commissions, said Crawford is taking Reyes' letter "under consideration" and will respond in "due time."
He did not say what effect Crawford's comments would have on other cases.
"We're moving forward," he said. "There's a busy week planned."
Several hearings are scheduled this week, including a mental competence hearing for one of five men charged with war crimes for the Sep-tember 11 attacks.
DellaVedova said Al Nashiri's arraignment has been pushed back to February 9 at the request of the defence.
At least one other military defence attorney has asked that Crawford reconsider his client's case in light of her comments.
Air Force Major David Frakt stated in a letter sent Wednesday that interrogators obtained a statement from Mohammad Jawad through torture. The Afghan is accused of throwing a grenade that wounded two American soldiers and their Afghan interpreter.
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