Yemeni detainee asks to represent himself [Archives:2004/768/Front Page]

By Peter Willems
Yemen Times Staff
A Yemeni suspect disrupted the war crimes tribunal proceedings in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last Thursday by demanding to represent himself and pronouncing that he is a member of the Al-Qaeda network.
Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman Al-Bahlul, a 36-year old Yemeni, said in front of the five-member panel that he would not accept military lawyers but would agree to having a Yemeni attorney if his request was denied.
“I don't want an attorney representing me,” said Al-Bahlul. “I'll attend the sessions if it's mandatory. If I don't have to attend the hearing, I'd rather not attend.”
While his request was being discussed, Al-Bahlul said “I am an Al-Qaeda member” and began to speak about the attacks in New York and Washington on September 11th 2001.
US Army Colonel Peter S. Brownback, the presiding officer, ordered Al-Bahlul to stop and said to the members of the tribunal that Al-Bahlul's statements should not be used against him.
Prosecutor Navy Commander Scott Lang believes that Al-Bahlul's comments on being a member of Al-Qaeda can be used as evidence and plans to file a motion to use the defendant's statements in the military commission's proceedings.
Brownback initially rejected Al-Bahlul's request to represent himself, but later decided to send the request to retired Major General John Altenburg, the lawyer who oversees the military commission in Washington.
As for Al-Bahlul's request to have a Yemeni lawyer if he needs an attorney, the rules for a military commission trying detainees at Guantanamo Bay require defense lawyers to be US citizens.
Al-Bahlul is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and terrorist attacks. The US military accuses Al-Bahlul as being a “key Al-Qaeda propagandist” and of once being a bodyguard of Al-Qaeda's top leader, Osama bin Laden.
Another Guantanamo Bay detainee from Yemen, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, is facing the war crimes tribunal accused of once being Osama bin Laden's chauffeur. Last week, he and his lawyers declined to enter a plea until motions are filed in November.
The proceedings have been under criticism by defense lawyers and observers, accusing the panel of not being impartial. The defendants have yet to be classified as “enemy combatants,” which would give them fewer legal rights.
Up to now, 15 out of 585 detainees in Guantanamo Bay have been prepared to appear before the military commission.
A Yemeni organization that supports human rights, The National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedom (HOOD), has been protesting against the treatment of detainees that have been held in Guantanamo Bay since the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001.
“The way the United States is dealing with Arabs is unfair,” said Yemeni attorney Abdul Aziz Al-Samawi, who is the defense lawyer for the defendants accused of bombing the USS Cole at the port of Aden in 2000. “If they want them to be fair, the trials should be held in the United States where rights are more important, than in a place outside of its borders.”
Samawi added that Al-Bahlul's confession of being a member of Al-Qaeda should not be used as evidence in the military commission.
Translations being used in the war crimes tribunal were also criticized. According to an Arabic-speaking journalist who attended the trials, a number of words that Al-Bahlul spoke in Arabic were not translated correctly.
The date for the next session was not announced when the hearing was adjourned last Thursday.
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