Anne TootillFormer bin Laden driver goes to trial
July 18th 2008 10:38
Salim Hamdan is a driver and mechanic, not a member of al-Quida. So said his Pentagon appointed lawyer Navy Lt Cmdr Brian Mizer who will argue that the US has zeroed in on too small a target.
A former driver for Osama bin Laden, he is about to become the first Guantanamo prisoner to be tried for war crimes in a major test of the U.S. system for prosecuting alleged terrorists.
Hamdan is an unlikely candidate - a Yemeni father of two with a fourth-grade education who is not accused of a direct role in any terrorist attacks.
He is scheduled to go on trial Monday on charges of conspiracy and supporting terrorism before a jury of military officers in a specially built courtroom at a former air strip at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
A judge in Washington refused Thursday to order a halt to the proceedings. That means Hamdan, who earned about $200 a month as bin Laden's driver, will be the first defendant in a U.S. military war crimes trial since World War II.
His case will be watched around the world.
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