Secret Evidence in Military Tribunal of Child Soldier
According to Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files: Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison, military lawyers assigned to defend detainee Omar Khadr have been ordered by the judge in the case not to reveal the identities of the prosecution witnesses to their client. Here’s an excerpt from Worthington’s article:
Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, who lost his job earlier this year as a result of vigorously defending the rights of Salim Hamdan, one of Osama bin Laden’s drivers, to receive a fair trial, told a meeting of law students this April that the government’s insistence that the Commissions “were ‘full and fair trials’ reminded him of an old Western in which a character is told, ‘You’re going to have a fair trial, and then we’re going to hang you.’ ‘They weren’t doing what military commissions historically were set up to do,’ he said. ‘Rather than bring law to a lawless place, it was to create a lawless place.’”
Khadr’s case comes before the tribunal next May. He has been held prisoner since July of 2002. In addition to the unconstitutionality of the military tribunal process and the denial of a right to a speedy trial, Khadr’s case has been criticized for disregarding prohibitions against the prosecution of child soldiers. He was just 15 years old when he was captured on a battlefield in Afghanistan. He was born in Canada, and moved to Afghanistan by his father in 1997. Khadr’s father was a supporter of Osama bin Laden, and Omar’s older brother has described being sent for military training when he was only 11 years old.
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