Bin Laden's driver jailed on terror charge
Osama bin Laden’s former driver was jailed today after being convicted of supporting terrorism in the first US war crimes trial since the Second World War.
Salim Hamdan was sentenced to five years and six months after he was found guilty of supporting terrorism following a 10-day trial at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
He was accused of transporting missiles for al Qaida and helping bin Laden escape US retribution following the September 11 terror attacks by driving him around Afghanistan.
Hamdan will be eligible for release in six months after the military judge, Navy Captain Keith Allred, earlier ruled he should receive five years of credit for time served at Guantanamo Bay since the Pentagon decided to charge him.
The judge described Hamdan as a “small player”.
Earlier, US prosecutors asked for Hamdan to be sentenced to at least 30 years and urged the jurors to make an example of him.
“You have found him guilty of offences that have made our world extremely unsafe and dangerous,” prosecutor John Murphy said.
“The government asks you to deliver a sentence that will absolutely keep our society safe from him.”
Hamdan, a Yemeni who is about 37, pleaded with the jury of six American military officers to spare him from a life in prison.
He expressed regret over the “innocent people” who died in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, according to a Pentagon transcript.
His apology could not be heard by reporters because the sound was turned off during part of the proceedings to protect classified information.
“I personally present my apologies to them if anything that I did has caused them pain,” Hamdan said.
Reading in Arabic from a prepared statement, he said he had a “relationship of respect” with bin Laden while he worked for him.
“It’s true there are work opportunities in Yemen, but not at the level I needed after I got married and not to the level of ambitions that I had in my future,” he said.
His defence lawyers also urged leniency and reminded jurors that Hamdan was not convicted of any role in al Qaida’s attacks.
Charles Swift, defending Hamdan, said: “It is important the world recognise that this is justice and not revenge.”
The verdict will be appealed automatically to a special military court in Washington DC and Hamdan can then appeal to US civilian courts as well.
Under tribunal rules, the jury imposes the sentence, not the judge. Their verdict does not have to be unanimous, and a review by a Pentagon legal official can reduce the sentence but not increase it.
The judge told jurors they could impose any sentence from life in prison to no punishment.
But he instructed them to take into account the nearly seven years Hamdan has spent in confinement and that he is the sole supporter of his wife and two children.
Psychologist Emily Keram told the jurors Hamdan wept when prosecutors showed video of planes crashing into New York’s twin towers on September 11, 2001.
Hamdan held his head in his hands and wept at the defence table after a navy captain on the jury read their decision yesterday.
Former attorney general Lord Goldsmith said the case would do nothing to ease concerns over the “unjust and flawed” legal system being used.
“I still don’t believe the system they have ended up with is a good system and I don’t think this trial is going to stop the debate. It is going to the Supreme Court ultimately I have no doubt,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Deputy White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the Bush administration was pleased by the outcome and considered it a fair trial.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Hamdan was “zealously represented by his defence team” and the Pentagon respected the jury’s decision.
Hamdan faced eight counts of supporting terrorism and two counts of conspiracy.
The five-man, one-woman jury convicted him on five counts of supporting terrorism and found him not guilty on three others.
He was cleared of both counts of conspiracy.
Jurors accepted the prosecution argument that Hamdan aided terrorism by serving as bin Laden’s armed bodyguard and driver in Afghanistan while knowing that the al Qaida leader was plotting attacks against the US.
Hamdan’s deputy chief defence counsel Michael Berrigan said the split verdict was due to the skill of his team, which won an acquittal on what he called the most serious charges, even when the system was stacked against the defendant.
London-based human rights group Amnesty International said Hamdan’s conviction “under procedures that do not meet international fair trial standards compounds the injustice of his more than five years’ unlawful detention in Guantanamo”.
Hamdan was captured at a roadblock in southern Afghanistan in November 2001, with two surface-to-air missiles in the car and taken to Guantanamo Bay in May 2002.
During the trial, US prosecutors told the jury Hamdan played a “vital role” in the conspiracy behind the September 11 attacks, but his defence team said it was “a classic case of guilt by association”.
Hamdan admitted working for bin Laden in Afghanistan from 1997 to 2001 for 200 dollars (£100) a month, but denied being part of al Qaida or taking part in any attacks.
