Salim Hamdan, bin Ladens personal bodyguard and driver, and Omar Khadr will face a US war crimes tribunal at the naval detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba today. Hamdan's case has surfaced in the Supreme Court in the past. The Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld ruled that the military commission invoked by President Bush was unconstitutional, spurring Congress to invoke legislation to establish the current tribunal system there. As part of this legislation, Congress revoked the rights normally protected by the US Constitution for suspected militants in US custody .
Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen, is being charged with the murder of a US soldier. He was captured at a suspected al Qa’ida training camp in Afghanistan. He was 15 at the time. Khadr, now 20, would be classified as a child soldier under international conventions. The internationally recognized age of legal conscription is 18 years old. Khadr's legal counsel is urging that age appropriate measures be considered in his case. The US has stated it will not seek a life sentence or the death penalty due to Khadr's age at the time of his alleged crimes. The US prosecution of Khadr mark the first time a child soldier will face charges at a war crimes tribunal – a precedent not even practiced by the special tribunals for the Sierra Leone. International conventions typically recognize child soldiers as victims, not perpetrators, of war crimes.
AP UPDATE: GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba: In a stunning reversal for the Bush administration's attempts to try Guantanamo detainees in military court, a military judge on Monday dismissed terrorism-related charges against a prisoner charged with killing an American soldier in Afghanistan.
