USG Reducing the Number of Would-be Commissions Defendants, In Light of Hamdan and Al-Bahlul
That's the essence of Jane Sutton's Reuters story. Not exactly unexpected news, given recent D.C. Circuit decisions, a likely-though-still-uncertain ruling from that same court sitting en banc, and prior statements by the Chief Prosecutor.
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That's the essence of Jane Sutton's Reuters story. Not exactly unexpected news, given recent D.C. Circuit decisions, a likely-though-still-uncertain ruling from that same court sitting en banc, and prior statements by the Chief Prosecutor. At any rate, the piece begins as follows:
Far fewer prisoners will be tried in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals than the Obama administration originally planned because a recent court ruling cast doubts on the viability of some charges, the chief prosecutor for the tribunals said. The president's Guantanamo Review Task Force had said 36 detainees could be prosecuted, but the tribunal's chief prosecutor put the figure at 20 at most. The number set by the task force after a review completed in 2010 was "ambitious" in light of a recent court ruling, said Army Brigadier General Mark Martins, the chief prosecutor for the tribunals. He said captives who would be prosecuted by the Guantanamo tribunals included the seven whose trials are finished and the six facing pre-trial hearings this week and next. The drastic scaling back of the Guantanamo prosecutions comes after a U.S. appeals court in Washington threw out the conviction of Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, who was found guilty in 2008 of providing material support for terrorism.
Wells C. Bennett was Managing Editor of Lawfare and a Fellow in National Security Law at the Brookings Institution. Before coming to Brookings, he was an Associate at Arnold & Porter LLP.
