Prosecutors propose suspending Guantanamo trials: Khadr's lawyer
Hearings at U.S. Naval base dismissed until Wednesday 'unless otherwise ordered'
U.S. military prosecutors are seeking to suspend all war crimes trials at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until they get more guidance from President Barack Obama's administration, a military lawyer appointed to defend Canadian Omar Khadr said Tuesday.
Navy Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler said the prosecution has proposed an indefinite continuance, which would pause the tribunals in a way that would allow them to be restarted easily.
"It appears to be an ongoing last-ditch effort to save this disgusting mess," he told the Associated Press.
A Pentagon spokesman who was at Guantanamo, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, declined comment, saying "we do not discuss internal consultations among the trial parties."
Kuebler said the defence wants to have all pending charges formally withdrawn by the U.S. Department of Defence. He said the charges could be refiled again under the military courts martial system or in civilian courts. The military has charges pending against 21 men.
"That's the only way you effectively freeze the system," he said.
The behind-the-scenes manoeuvring came on the day a military judge adjourned the Guantanamo Bay war crimes court just before Obama was sworn in by noting the future of the commissions is in doubt. The hearings were dismissed until Wednesday "unless otherwise ordered."
Obama has said he will close Guantanamo and many expect he will suspend the widely criticized war-crimes trials created by former president George W. Bush and Congress. Obama's nominee for attorney general has said the so-called military commissions lack sufficient legal protection for defendants and that they could be tried in the United States.
Despite the doubts about its future, military judges decided to press on with this week's session, which brought dozens of lawyers, witnesses and officials to the U.S. base in Cuba for several days of pretrial hearings in the case of Khadr, who is accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, and the five men charged with orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.