War crimes appeals court hearing Friday
on Aug 23, 2007 at 5:30 pm
The U.S. Court of Military Commission Review, the tribunal set up by Congress to hear appeals in war crimes prosecutions, will hold its first hearing on its first case on Friday. The Court will borrow a courtroom from the U.S. Court of Appeals-Federal Circuit for its 10 a.m. hearing in U.S. v. Khadr (docket 07-001).
With 45 minutes each for prosecutors and defense counsel, the Court will be exploring three issues. The key one is whether a military judge correctly dismissed all charges against the young Canadian detainee, Omar Ahmed Khadr, because of a flaw in the Combatant Status Review Tribunals for Guantanamo Bay prisoners. (The Court’s order setting the hearing and the issues can be found here.)
The other issues involve claims by the defense counsel that the Court itself is not a proper tribunal because of the mode of appointment of the judges, and that the judges named to the panel in Khadr’s case were not validly appointed. The three military officers serving as judges on this first panel were reappointed by the Court’s new Chief Judge, former U.S. Attorney General Griffin B. Bell on Aug. 20. That may have mooted the third issue.
