SFGate: Pentagon Appeals Gitmo Detainee's Case

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Friday, July 6, 2007 (AP)
Pentagon Appeals Gitmo Detainee's Case
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer

(07-06) 16:11 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

The Pentagon said Friday it had appealed a decision by a military judge to
dismiss the case of a Guantanamo Bay detainee accused of murdering an
American soldier in Afghanistan.

It is the first time that the appeals process has been used since it was
created by Congress in late 2006 to handle cases involving Guantanamo
detainees.

Omar Ahmed Khadr, a Canadian citizen, is one of two detainees whose
military trials fell apart because they were not identified as "unlawful"
enemy combatants.

The other is Yemeni detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama
bin Laden.

Prosecutors filed an appeal in Khadr's case with the Court of Military
Commission Review on July 4, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Chito Peppler, a Pentagon
spokesman.

Peppler said both sides will be given an opportunity to file written
briefs.

Khadr and Hamdan are the only ones currently in the roughly 375-prisoner
population at Guantanamo who have been charged with crimes under a
reconstituted military trial system. The judge who threw out the charges
against Hamdan has not yet ruled on prosecutors' motion to reconsider.
Hamdan is accused of conspiracy and providing support for terrorism.

One other detainee charged under the new system, Australian David Hicks,
pleaded guilty in March to providing material support to al-Qaida and is
serving a nine-month sentence in Australia.

Khadr has been in custody since he was 15. He is charged with tossing a
grenade that killed one U.S. soldier and injured another in Afghanistan in
2002.

He is the son of an alleged al-Qaida financier, and his family has
received little sympathy in Canada, where they've been called the "First
Family of Terrorism."

Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay has said the government will wait
until the appeals process has been exhausted before asking U.S.
authorities to release Khadr to Canada. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2007 AP