WASHINGTON: A US judge, in a victory for the Bush administration, ruled on Thursday that the war crimes trial of the former driver of Osama bin Laden can go ahead as scheduled next week in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"The motion for injunction is denied," said Judge James Robertson, rejecting the last-ditch attempt by the lawyers of Yemeni detainee Salim Hamdan to halt his trial.

Hamdan, a 37-year-old Yemeni, is the first "enemy combatant" from the US "war on terror" to face a military tribunal since the Guantanamo prison camp was opened in late 2001.

His trial is set to begin on Monday. Preliminary hearings in his case are taking place at Guantanamo this week.

Hamdan's lawyers expressed disappointment with Robertson's ruling allowing the trial to go ahead. "It is bad news for us," said Joseph McMillan. "We are very disappointed."

Lawyers for Hamdan had called for the suspension of the trial following the US Supreme Court's June decision allowing the roughly 260 Guantanamo inmates to challenge their detention in civilian courts.

That ruling dealt a serious blow to the Bush administration, but it vowed to continue the military commissions.

US Attorney General Michael Mukasey said in June that the ruling "does not concern military commission trials, which will continue to proceed".

He said the decision instead focused on the "procedures that the Congress and the president put in place to allow enemy combatants to challenge their detention".

A disappointed McMillan said an appeal was in the works and would take about two weeks.

He also repeated allegations that Hamdan had been tortured while in US custody including suffering sleep deprivation.

The Bush administration has faced heated criticism from human rights and other organizations for detaining prisoners for years at Guantanamo without giving them the right to defend themselves in court.

Hamdan, Osama's former chauffeur and bodyguard, is facing charges of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism in the nation's first war crimes tribunal since the end of World War II.

Several other Guantanamo inmates are also facing trial in Guantanamo including Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, a Kuwaiti of Pakistani origin who is considered the mastermind of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

They could face the death penalty.


- AFP/so