Vol. 71/No. 47      December 17, 2007

Omar Ahmed Khadr is one of 300 prisoners still being held at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He could be the first of these to be tried under the Military Commissions Act. In 2006 Congress established “military commissions” to hold trials under severely restricted rights for defendants.

In such trials, the prisoners are represented by a “personal representative,” not a lawyer. They cannot see classified evidence used against them, and information against them obtained through torture is admissible as evidence. Under the recent court order, Khadr would be denied the constitutional right to a public trial and to confront one’s accusers.

Five media companies, including the Associated Press, the New York Times, and Dow Jones and Co., filed a complaint November 21 that they are being denied access to military trial proceedings against Khadr in violation of First Amendment protection of freedom of the press.

Khadr, a 21-year-old Canadian citizen, was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 after a firefight involving U.S. Special Forces. Held at Guantánamo for five years without charges, he was arraigned November 8 on charges of killing a U.S. soldier and giving material support to “terrorism.”

Khadr’s military-assigned lawyers said they have been given a list of prosecution witnesses but cannot build a defense because they cannot ask their client or anyone else about them.

On December 5 the Supreme Court heard multiple cases of Guantánamo detainees who have asserted the right to habeas corpus to challenge their prolonged imprisonment.

If the Supreme Court rules that prisoners at Guantánamo have the right to habeas corpus, the government would be required to present its evidence for their imprisonment in open court.  
 
 
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