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WASHINGTON: In a victory for the Bush administration, a US judge ruled Thursday that the first Guantanamo prison war crimes trial, against Osama bin Laden's former driver, can go ahead as scheduled next week.
"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, 37, 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, in Cuba, this week.
In a brief ruling, Robertson said it was not up to him to stop the trial even before it started, but that the defence team was free to file an appeal in a civilian federal court after a verdict is reached in the case.
"His claims of unlawfulness are all claims that should first be decided by the military commission and then raised on appeal," the judge said.
Hamdan's lawyers expressed disappointment with the ruling.
"It is bad news for us," said attorney 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 President George W. Bush's 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."
Hamdan's attorneys argued that he was mistreated while in US custody and was subjected to sleep deprivation.
The Bush administration has faced heated criticism from human rights groups for detaining prisoners for years at Guantanamo without giving them the right to defend themselves in court.
Of the 260 detainees currently in Guantanamo, only around 20 have been charged with a crime and the government plans to put only 60 to 80 of them on trial.
Hamdan, bin Laden'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/yb
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