Suit involving ex-driver for bin Ladin sent to D.C.

By Maureen O'Hagan
Seattle Times staff reporter

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The lawsuit had been filed on behalf of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 and taken to Guantánamo Bay. President Bush later selected him and three others for a criminal trial before a military tribunal, leading the government to move Hamdan to solitary confinement last December as they tried to negotiate a plea.

Hamdan, however, said he is neither a combatant nor a terrorist, and he refused to plead.

Meanwhile, Hamdan's military lawyer filed a lawsuit in Seattle challenging the conditions of his confinement as well as the system of military tribunals themselves. That case has now been moved.

"There are many valid reasons for this Court to retain" the case here, wrote U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik yesterday. However, he wrote, "there is no getting around the fact" that the U.S. Supreme Court and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently decided that all legal challenges by Guantánamo detainees should be heard in one place.

It's likely, however, that Hamdan's trial before a military tribunal will take place before much progress is made in the D.C. lawsuit.

The Department of Defense said that Hamdan will face a tribunal at the end of this month, making him one of the first detainees to be tried.

He has been charged with conspiracy to attack civilians and to commit terrorism, among other offenses.

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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