Guantanamo Bay continues to be the location where a variety of alleged terrorists await trial in a weird, improvised military tribunal setup for “enemy combatants.” [1] As the trial setup is basically being made up as things go along, the rules of what can or can’t be done, and who gets to decide that, continue to evolve.
A few weeks back, the defense team for Abd al Rahim al Nashiri — facing a potential death sentence for the USS Cole bombing in 2000 — quit, claiming that they conversations with their client were being monitored, against previous court rulings. The Marine General who serves as chief defense counsel, approved their withdrawing from the case.
Yesterday, the judge in the case, a Colonel, found that General in contempt of court for refusing to rescind that approval. Brigadier General John Baker will be fined $1000 and kept under confinement in his quarters for 21 days. Meanwhile, the judge, Air Force Colonel Vance Spath, has ordered that the now-departed lawyers continue to serve, that they report to a military base on the mainland to use a secure communications system with the court, and that a (ostensibly) secure communications system could be set up with al Nashiri at their request. Spath has threatened to find them in contempt if they refuse, too.
Spath has also ordered the junior military lawyer on the team, who has no capital case experience, to continue serving as counsel and to be in charge of filing any pleadings from the defense. That lawyer has apparently refused to do so as he does not qualify as a “learned counsel” for capital cases, and the military commissions law requires that level of experience.
In the middle of this all is a dispute over whether Spath has jurisdiction to do anything to Baker, or whether Baker or Spath has control over whether the lawyers can be forced to serve (or if they can, in fact, be forced to serve).
Al Nashiri has been in US custody since 2002; he was indicted in 2011. Six years later, the actual trial has not even begun. He was identified as one of the prisoners tortured for information in the Senate Torture Commission investigation, which has been just one of the many causes for delay in his case.
And, remember, this is the cool, spiffy, efficient, totally-justice-oriented site where Trump was mulling trying to send the NYC bike path terrorist to stand trial (even though to do so seems outside the scope of the law that established the military tribunals), because he considers the federal justice system to be a “laughing stock.”
More info:
— http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/chaos-in-guantanamo-as-makeshift-legal-process-hits-a-conflict-1086762051739
— https://www.thedailybeast.com/gitmo-judge-convicts-us-generalbecause-he-stood-up-for-detainee-rights
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[1] It’s also “home” to a number of folk who the military and intelligence have determined to actually not be chargable with anything, but cannot find any countries to take them back. It’s also “home” to a number of more threatening cases that haven’t actually been tried for anything, and may never be. Yay, justice!
Gitmo judge sends Marine general lawyer to 21 days confinement for disobeying orders
The contempt and sentencing hearing took 35 minutes Wednesday morning; then Wednesday night the judge issued another order — instructing the resigned civilian counsel to tele-litigate.
The White House now denies that Trump called the current US justice system a "joke" and "a laughing stock".
Still, as of this morning's tweets, Trump has backed off sending the current terror suspect to Gitmo because "statistically" it takes so much longer to do.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/01/hours-after-trump-calls-us-justice-system-a-laughing-stock-white-house-denies-he-ever-did.html