GUANTANAMO, Cuba: A military judge barred a US general yesterday from further involvement in the war crimes trial of a young Afghan prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, the second time the legal adviser has been blocked from a case.
The judge also ordered that the attempted murder charges against defendant Mohammed Jawad, 23, be sent back to the overseer of the tribunals for revalidation.
But the judge denied a defense request to dismiss all charges against Jawad, who is accused of throwing a grenade into a US military jeep at a bazaar in Kabul in December 2002, wounding two US soldiers and their Afghan interpreter.
Jawad’s military lawyers said the charges should be thrown out because they were tainted by unlawful influence from Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, the officer appointed to give impartial legal advice to the Pentagon appointee overseeing the war crimes tribunals at the US military base in Cuba.
The judge said there was evidence Hartmann “desired to control the entire operation” but that the decision to charge Jawad was made independently by an acting chief prosecutor.
Still, he said Hartmann’s public statements aligning himself with the prosecution had compromised his ability to act impartially in an appeals process if Jawad is convicted.
