Bin Laden driver faces first Guantanamo trial

Osama bin Laden's driver will face a controversial form of American justice on Monday in the first Guantanamo war crimes trial, 6-1/2 years after the United States opened its prison camp in Cuba to jail fighters in the "war on terror."

Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni, faces life in prison if convicted of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism in a court created by U.S. President George W. Bush in response to the September 11 attacks.

It is the first U.S. war crimes tribunal since World War Two.

Since Hamdan was sent in May 2002 to the prison on the isolated Caribbean naval base, it has become a lightning rod for anger against and criticism of the United States as detainees complained of torture and abuse.

They have been denied many of the Geneva Conventions rights accorded to prisoners of war, with the Bush administration asserting it could hold them indefinitely without charge.

Prosecutors contend Hamdan was close to al Qaeda's inner circle. His lawyers say he was merely a driver in bin Laden's motor pool. He will be judged by a jury of the same U.S. military officers who are fighting Bush's "war on terrorism."

Defence lawyers and human rights advocates have complained bitterly both about conditions in the Guantanamo prison and the legal system the Bush administration constructed to try suspects.

The lawyers say their clients have been physically and mentally abused and they have been denied access to witnesses, records and other evidence.

"The course of conduct the government has engaged in . is a source of righteous indignation and should be for any right-thinking American citizen," said Mike Berrigan, deputy chief defence counsel for the tribunals. "It's not justice."

Hamdan himself told the court in pretrial hearings he was beaten, threatened with death, deprived of sleep before interrogations and sexually humiliated by a female questioner in violation of Muslim sexual taboos.

Prosecutors say his claims of mistreatment are false.

BIG VICTORY

Hamdan, who is in his late 30s, has notched one big legal victory. His challenge prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the first tribunal system and forced Congress to pass the Military Commissions Act of 2006, under which he will be tried.

Until the eve of trial, his lawyers have pressed to throw out key evidence, including Hamdan's own confessions. They say he was coerced and that interrogators failed to read him his rights against self-incrimination, a constitutional guarantee.

"It has always been our position that constitutional rights, in particular the right against self-incrimination as understood today in the United States, does not extend to a non-citizen captured overseas," said Col. Lawrence Morris, the chief prosecutor for the tribunals.

Human rights groups say the tribunals violate bedrock tenets of U.S. justice.

"The commission intends to admit self-incriminating statements made without an advisal of rights, or to admit statements obtained through coercion and torture, or to allow hearsay evidence," said Lee Gelernt, an official with the American Civil Liberties Union who has observed the war court.

Among the intriguing aspects of a trial that is expected to last at least three weeks is Hamdan's intention to call alleged September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other high-level al Qaeda suspects to the witness stand. His lawyers say they can help prove Hamdan was not an al Qaeda member.

Prosecutors have fought against it, citing national security concerns. Virtually everything Mohammed and other "high-value" detainees say is considered a classified secret.

If Mohammed is allowed to testify, the trial will have to be moved temporarily from the hilltop courthouse overlooking Guantanamo Bay to a high-security courthouse impervious to eavesdropping devices.

Some 500 Guantanamo detainees have been released or removed to their home countries since the prison was opened. About 265 remain and only one, Australian David Hicks, has been convicted after he accepted a plea deal.

Morris said prosecutors were well aware of the magnitude of the Hamdan trial, both as a chance to bring him to justice and a test of the war crimes system.

"Has to be important. It's the first contested war crimes trial since World War Two," he said. "So it is important."