US preparing Guantanamo trials

2006-09-13 08:25

Miami - The US military has begun preparing charges against alleged September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other terrorism suspects recently moved to Guantanamo, the chief prosecutor for the tribunals said on Tuesday.

But dozens of other long-time Guantanamo detainees are likely to face trial well before the 14 "high-value" prisoners who were transferred to the US base in Cuba from secret CIA prisons overseas earlier this month, said air force Colonel Moe Davis, the lead prosecutor.

"The 14 new cases, we really are starting from scratch," Davis said.

"We've got attorneys that are looking at the cases but obviously those are complex cases and it's early in the process. We've got a long way to go on those."

New law needed

The war crimes trials at Guantanamo were halted when the US Supreme Court in June rejected the tribunal system set up by President George W Bush to try foreign terrorism suspects.

They cannot resume until Congress passes a new law authorising them, nor can new charges be filed.

Congress is negotiating over Bush administration proposals to allow the use of hearsay and secret evidence that would not be shown to the accused, some of the same rules that military defence attorneys called fundamental flaws in the original tribunal system.

Elections

With elections in November, congress is under pressure to act before the pre-election recess and the tribunals' top lawyers expect there will be a deal.

Once a law is passed, defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld's appointees would have 90 days to issue orders implementing the new procedures, so trials could resume as early as January or February.

10 already charged set to be tried first

"I think everyone's optimistic the legislation is going to go forward in some form and we will be back in business soon," Davis told Reuters in a telephone interview from Washington.

"I would anticipate early in 2007 being back in court."

Those likely to be tried first at Guantanamo are the 10 men already charged under the old tribunal system because they already have lawyers, who have had a chance to review much of the evidence, Davis said.

- Reuters