GUANTANAMO BAY US NAVAL BASE, Cuba: The US war crimes trial of Osama Bin Laden’s accused media director began yesterday with silence from the defense in the Guantanamo Bay courtroom after the judge ruled the Yemeni defendant had the right to stand mute and offer no defense.
Defendant Ali Hamza Al-Bahlul came to the courtroom voluntarily but is boycotting participation because he does not recognize the tribunal’s legitimacy.
“I will be joining Mr. Al-Bahlul’s boycott of the proceedings, standing mute at the table,” said his US military-appointed lawyer, Air Force Maj. David Frakt.
The judge, Air Force Col. David Gregory, said the rules allow Frakt to honor his client’s wishes by doing nothing, since the prosecution has the entire burden of proving the charges. His further questions to the defense were met with silence.
Bahlul is accused of preparing Al-Qaeda recruiting materials, including a video glorifying the 2000 attack that killed 17 US sailors on the warship USS Cole, preparing the videotaped will of Sept. 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta and operating communications gear for Bin Laden.
He is also accused of acting as one of the Al-Qaeda leader’s bodyguards.
Bahlul, a man so loquacious that other prisoners have begged not to be held in cells adjacent to his, had made lengthy statements in previous hearings. He acknowledged that “I am from Al-Qaeda” and expressed loyalty to Bin Laden.
The judge ruled those statements cannot be used as evidence against him because they were made in the limited context of explaining his intent to boycott.
Bahlul, who is about 38, refused to wear the earphones that would allow him to hear an Arabic interpretation of the hearing. He is charged with conspiring with Al-Qaeda, soliciting to commit murder and providing material support for terrorism. He faces life in prison if convicted.
His trial is only the second in the special tribunals created by the Bush administration to try non-US captives on terrorism charges without the protections normally granted to civilians and soldiers. Bin Laden’s driver, Salim Hamdan, was convicted at the first one in August of providing material support for terrorism.
Only one more trial is scheduled before US President George W. Bush leaves office in January, that of a young Afghan captive accused of throwing a grenade that wounded two US soldiers and their interpreter.
Both major party candidates vying to succeed Bush have said they will close the Guantanamo prison that is widely viewed as a stain on America’s reputation.
Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama has said Guantanamo captives should be tried in the regular US courts. Republican nominee Sen. John McCain has said they should be tried in the United States, but under the special tribunal system.
Prosecutors planned to call 31 witnesses against Bahlul, including three of the “Lackawanna Six,” a group of Lackawanna, New York, men who admitted in a US federal court that they went to an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in the spring of 2001.
