WASHINGTON: A US military prosecutor in the trial against a prisoner who is on trial for war-crimes, has quit the case because of concern over the defendant’s lack of due process, defense attorneys claim.
The news comes at a time when congressional investigators announced that top White House officials were told in early 2002 about harsh interrogations used by the CIA to extract information from suspected Al Qaeda terrorists in the agency’s secret prisons.
Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, an Army reservist, said in a four-page declaration filed with the court that “potentially exculpatory evidence has not been provided” to the defense.
“My ethical qualms about continuing to serve as a prosecutor relate primarily to the procedures for affording defense counsel discovery,” Vandeveld wrote. “I am highly concerned, to the point that I believe I can no longer serve as a prosecutor at the Commissions, about the slipshod, uncertain ‘procedure’ for affording defense counsel discovery.” The military’s chief prosecutor at Guantanamo, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, said there are no grounds for ethical qualms.
He said Vandeveld resigned because he is disappointed his superiors “didn’t see the wisdom of his recommendations.” Vandeveld gave notice within the last few weeks that he wanted to quit the prosecution team early and cited “personal reasons,” Morris told reporters.
Vandeveld was prosecuting Afghan murder suspect Mohammed Jawad and the case will go on, Morris said. Vandeveld is said to have quit the case — and the Office of Military Commissions — after growing increasingly concerned about the lack of due process afforded to Jawad and his legal team, according to Michael J. Berrigan, deputy chief defense counsel for the commissions. Jawad, now about 23, was arrested in 2002 near Kabul.
He is charged with attempting to commit murder in violation of the law of war for allegedly throwing a grenade into a jeep transporting troops, injuring two soldiers and an interpreter. His trial is set for Dec.
Vandeveld said in his declaration that prosecutors knew Jawad may have been drugged before the attack and that the Afghan Interior Ministry said two other men had confessed to the same crime.
Vandevelds’ departure is the latest blow to the military trials process and a prosecutor’s office that has been battered by resignations over issues of fairness. Other officials have alleged that the leadership of the military commissions is sacrificing principles of justice in a rush to secure convictions.
Details of the controversial CIA program were discussed in multiple meetings inside the White house over a two-year period, raising concerns by several officials who worried that the agency’s methods might be illegal or violate anti-torture treaties, according to separate statements signed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her top legal advisers.
