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Guantanamo tribunals face chaos as top defence lawyer punished for contempt
Source: The Guardian
Guantánamo tribunals face chaos as top defence lawyer punished for contempt
Move by Lt Col Vance Spath against Marine Brig Gen John Baker comes in trial of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, accused of plotting to bomb USS Cole in Yemen in 2000
Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday 1 November 2017 20.16 GMT
The military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay are facing chaos after a trial judge sentenced the chief defence counsel, a marine general, to 21 days’ confinement in his trailer for contempt.
The uproar came on the same day Republican senators called for the suspect in Wednesday’s New York truck attack to be sent to the detention camp on a US enclave in Cuba, and Donald Trump said he would certainly consider the idea. His administration has already said it may start sending new inmates to the camp, which was set up in 2001 to try terror suspects in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
In court on Wednesday, Marine Brigadier General John Baker, who oversees defence teams at the facility, attempted to argue the court had no jurisdiction over him. But Air Force Colonel Vance Spath, the judge in the case about the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, refused to let him speak and ordered him to sit down, according to the Miami Herald.
Spath declared Baker in contempt for excusing three civilian defence lawyers from the case because of an unspecified ethics conflict involving attorney-client privilege. Spath ordered the general confined to his quarters in a trailer near the court and to pay a $1,000 fine.
Spath ordered the civilian lawyers to return to Guantánamo Bay or appear by video-link next week.
-snip-
Move by Lt Col Vance Spath against Marine Brig Gen John Baker comes in trial of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, accused of plotting to bomb USS Cole in Yemen in 2000
Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday 1 November 2017 20.16 GMT
The military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay are facing chaos after a trial judge sentenced the chief defence counsel, a marine general, to 21 days’ confinement in his trailer for contempt.
The uproar came on the same day Republican senators called for the suspect in Wednesday’s New York truck attack to be sent to the detention camp on a US enclave in Cuba, and Donald Trump said he would certainly consider the idea. His administration has already said it may start sending new inmates to the camp, which was set up in 2001 to try terror suspects in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
In court on Wednesday, Marine Brigadier General John Baker, who oversees defence teams at the facility, attempted to argue the court had no jurisdiction over him. But Air Force Colonel Vance Spath, the judge in the case about the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, refused to let him speak and ordered him to sit down, according to the Miami Herald.
Spath declared Baker in contempt for excusing three civilian defence lawyers from the case because of an unspecified ethics conflict involving attorney-client privilege. Spath ordered the general confined to his quarters in a trailer near the court and to pay a $1,000 fine.
Spath ordered the civilian lawyers to return to Guantánamo Bay or appear by video-link next week.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/01/guantanamo-military-military-tribunals-contemp
