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Guantanamo prisoner seeks to attend pre-trial talks on secret evidence
Source: Reuters
Guantanamo prisoner seeks to attend pre-trial talks on secret evidence
By Jane Sutton
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba | Wed Jun 12, 2013 5:00pm EDT
(Reuters) - A prisoner accused of directing the deadly bombing of a U.S. warship should be allowed to hear pretrial discussions of secret evidence in the death penalty case against him, defense lawyers in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal argued on Wednesday.
Trial rules ensure that Saudi defendant Abd al Rahim al Nashiri can be in the courtroom during all of the actual trial and hear all the evidence put before the jury of U.S. military officers who will eventually decide his guilt or innocence.
His lawyers argued that they cannot properly prepare a defense unless Nashiri is also in the courtroom to confer with them during pretrial hearings to discuss legal and evidentiary issues, even if the discussions involve information classified as secret.
Most of that classified material involves Nashiri's treatment in secret CIA prisons before he was sent to the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, where he is charged with sending suicide bombers to ram a boat full of explosives into the side of the USS Cole off Yemen in 2000.
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By Jane Sutton
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba | Wed Jun 12, 2013 5:00pm EDT
(Reuters) - A prisoner accused of directing the deadly bombing of a U.S. warship should be allowed to hear pretrial discussions of secret evidence in the death penalty case against him, defense lawyers in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal argued on Wednesday.
Trial rules ensure that Saudi defendant Abd al Rahim al Nashiri can be in the courtroom during all of the actual trial and hear all the evidence put before the jury of U.S. military officers who will eventually decide his guilt or innocence.
His lawyers argued that they cannot properly prepare a defense unless Nashiri is also in the courtroom to confer with them during pretrial hearings to discuss legal and evidentiary issues, even if the discussions involve information classified as secret.
Most of that classified material involves Nashiri's treatment in secret CIA prisons before he was sent to the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, where he is charged with sending suicide bombers to ram a boat full of explosives into the side of the USS Cole off Yemen in 2000.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/12/us-usa-guantanamo-idUSBRE95B12W20130612
