Judge orders Pentagon to suspend trial of Saudi detainee

Judge orders Pentagon to suspend trial of Saudi detainee
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
Knight Ridder Newspapers

Siding with an enemy combatant over the Bush administration, a federal judge Friday ordered the Pentagon to suspend a Saudi captive's trial at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until the U.S. Supreme Court rules next month on whether President Bush's military commissions are constitutional.

U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan rejected a Justice Department argument that a month-long delay in the al-Qaida conspiracy case of Ghassan Sharbi, 31, ``would imperil the war effort.''

``The government has not explained, however, why the Court must adhere to the laws of war now, rather than wait a few weeks so that it may follow the rule of law, as it will be determined by the Supreme Court,'' Sullivan said.

Sharbi, a 2000 graduate of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., has been held at the Navy base's detention center since 2002. A Navy captain had scheduled a pretrial hearing in his al-Qaida conspiracy case next week.

He is accused of plotting to build car-bomb detonators in Pakistan and ship them to Afghanistan in March 2002.

Last month Sharbi stunned observers at his first-ever military commission proceedings by declaring: ``I'm going to make it easy for you guys: I fought against the United States. I took up arms.''

Justice Department lawyers have characterized the first U.S. war-crimes tribunals since World War II as a key component in the U.S. war-on-terror effort.

A Supreme Court challenge brought by a one-time driver for Osama bin Laden asserts that military commissions - the way they were created by the Bush administration after the 9-11 attacks - are at odds with U.S. treaty obligations and time-honored U.S. legal safeguards.

The Bush administration says enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay don't get constitutional protections.

Robert Rachlin, a Vermont defense attorney for Sharbi, argued that, in advance of a Supreme Court ruling, the government was building a trial record against his client that could prejudice him, depending on what the justices decide.

``The harm to the petitioner is undoubtedly irreparable,'' the judge said.

``The Court fails to see any prejudice ... by waiting for the Supreme Court''s determination that its commission does not violate the Constitution.''

In winning the stay, Sharbi becomes the fourth of 10 Guantanamo captives facing military commission charges whose cases have been frozen by the federal courts. The others are Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen, bin Laden's ex-driver; David Hicks of Australia, and Ibrahim al Qosi of Sudan.

Friday's ruling aside, a military commission is set to convene next week in Guantanamo in the case of another captive - Abdul Zahir of Afghanistan.

Sullivan, a 1994 Clinton appointee, is the same judge who in 2003 and 2004 suspended the Pentagon's mandatory anthrax vaccination program for U.S. servicemen and women.

Sullivan heard this week's case at the U.S. District Court on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., with Sharbi's defense attorney arguing by teleconference from a federal courthouse in Vermont.

The Miami Herald monitored the proceedings by way of an audio hookup from Miami, in an arrangement with the court.