The defense team for a Canadian citizen held at Guantanamo Bay on terrorist-related charges said the U.S. government withheld essential evidence in its effort to rush ahead with the tribunal in an attempt to validate its existence. Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler said the government withheld information obtained from several witnesses in his defense of Omar Khadr. He said the government blocked access to testimony from an unidentified U.S. government official who witnessed the 2002 firefight in which Khadr allegedly threw a grenade killing a U.S. Special Forces solider.
Kuebler told the court he was unaware of the eyewitness account until Tuesday , five years after Khadr was captured in Afghanistan at the age of 15. Pentagon officials said they will disclose evidence according the rules set forth by the U.S. war crimes tribunal.
“If the defense believes that the government has not complied with the discovery rules, they can file a motion with the court for appropriate relief at any time,” the unsigned statement read.
The presiding judge in the tribunal, Army Col. Peter Brownback, dismissed charges against Khadr in June because the review process declared the tribunal ineligible to stand trial. The Military Commissions Act established a military tribunal to try “unlawful enemy combatants” for terrorist-related charges. The review board declared Khadr as only an “enemy combatant.”
Kuebler also requested Brownback recuse himself from the case for lack of impartiality, citing evidence Brownback had “taken heat” from Pentagon officials for the June ruling.
Khadr's case would be the first to proceed before the tribunal established under the Military Commissions Act, two others await trial. The military said nearly a quarter of the 320 held at Guantanamo Bay face prosecution by the tribunal.
Khadr is one of three Guantanamo detainees facing charges under the Military Commissions Act. The military plans to prosecute as many as 80 of the 320 men at Guantanamo.
