Post date: Aug 22, 2013 11:12:58 PM
A lawyer for one of the five detainees accused of plotting the September 11 attacks asks the judge to throw out charges against the detainees, alleging the "alien-only" Guantanamo court violates the Constitutional right to equal protection under the law.
GUANTANAMO BAY, U.S. NAVAL BASE, CUBA (AUGUST 22, 2013) (POOL) - A U.S. military lawyer invoked Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech" in arguing on Thursday (August 22) that the tribunal prosecuting the alleged 9/11 conspirators illegally discriminates because it only has jurisdiction over non-U.S. citizens.
"They are separate and they are unequal," Air Force Lieutenant Commander Sterling Thomas said of the war crimes tribunals at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba.Thomas, who represents Pakistani defendant Ammar al Baluchi, noted that most of the tribunal participants will be returning during the weekend to Washington, where a week long celebration will mark the 50th anniversary of King's historic speech. The address is considered a key impetus toward the adoption of landmark U.S. civil rights laws mandating equal treatment among the races.
Thomas said the Guantanamo tribunals are emblematic of the discrimination King fought against because Americans accused of identical crimes are tried in the U.S. federal courts where they enjoy greater legal protections, while the Guantanamo tribunals are reserved for foreigners.
In the 2009 law authorizing the Guantanamo tribunals, which are also known as military commissions, Congress specifically exempted U.S. citizens from their jurisdiction. No other U.S. civilian or military court had ever done that, Thomas said.
During previous wars ranging from the Revolutionary War to the Second World War, U.S. citizens were tried alongside foreigners in military commissions, while Americans and non-Americans have identical rights in the regular U.S. criminal courts, Thomas and other defense lawyers said.
They said the "alien-only" Guantanamo court violated the Constitutional right to equal protection under the law, and asked the judge to throw out the charges against five prisoners accused of plotting the hijacked plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. They could face execution if convicted of murder, terrorism and other charges.
The chief prosecutor, Army Brigadier General Mark Martins, said the Guantanamo tribunals protect defendants' rights and conform to international law, specifically the Geneva Conventions requirement that they afford "all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples."
Martins said the Saudi, Yemeni and Pakistani defendants "opted in" to the Guantanamo tribunals by their actions, not just their nationalities.
Congress gave the tribunals jurisdiction over "unprivileged belligerents" who fight illegally, hide among civilians and do not wear uniforms - "individuals who are banding together committing monstrous crimes," explained Martins.
The judge planned to hear further arguments on that and other issues before the week-long pretrial hearing ends on Friday evening. Four Guantanamo prisoners have been convicted through guilty pleas under the 2009 law but none have so far gone through contested trials under it.