Lawyers say UK Guantánamo suspect has no hope of fair trial
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian
October 2, 2008
The system of US military courts is so politically biased that Binyam Mohamed, a British resident held at Guantánamo Bay, has no prospect of a fair trial, his lawyers said yesterday.
A number of prosecutors appointed by the US defence department have resigned in protest at the procedures’ perceived prejudice. Judges presiding over the military commissions, as they are called, have also attacked the way trials have been conducted at the detention centre in Cuba.
Individuals singled out for attack include Pentagon official Susan Crawford, who will play a crucial role in Mohamed’s trial, which is expected to start shortly, and her legal adviser, Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann.
Mohamed, 30, an Ethiopian national and British resident, was held in Pakistan in 2002, when he was questioned by an MI5 officer. He was later secretly rendered to Morocco, where he says he was tortured by having his penis cut with a razor blade. The US subsequently flew him to Afghanistan and he was transferred to Guantánamo Bay in September 2004.