Bin Laden driver's trial begins.7/21/2008 3:49:03 PM A former driver and alleged bodyguard for Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden: see bin Laden, Osama. has gone ontrial at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay Noun 1. Guantanamo Bay - an inlet of the Caribbean Sea; a United States naval station was established on the bay in 1903 bay, embayment - an indentation of a shoreline larger than a cove but smaller than a gulf , Cuba, in the first US war crimestrial since World War II. Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni national, pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. Hamdan, who appeared in court on Monday in a khaki prison jumpsuit, could face life in prison if convicted by the military tribunal A military tribunal is a kind of military court designed to try members of enemy forces during wartime, operating outside the scope of conventional criminal and civil matters. The judges are military officers and fulfill the role of jurors. It is distinct from the court martial. . The prosecution alleges Hamdan was affiliated with the al-Qaeda network's inner circle and claims he was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 - shortly after the US-led invasion of the country - with two surface-to-air missiles This is a list of surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). Radar-guided SAMs
However Hamdan's lawyers say he was only a driver and mechanic in bin Laden's extended circle and needed the $200 monthly salary he was given. Court challenges In June this year the US Supreme Court ruled that detainees held in Guantanamo Bay could challenge their detention in civilian courts. However, a federal judge last week rejected a request from Hamdan's lawyers to delay his trial so he could challenge his detention. The trial is expected to take from three to four weeks, with testimony from around two dozen Pentagon witnesses. The jury will be selected from a pool of 13 US military officers flown in from around the world and will have at least five members. Ahead of the trial, Keith Allred, the presiding judge presiding judge n. 1) in both state and federal appeals court, the judge who chairs the panel of three or more judges during hearings and supervises the business of the court. , threw out some statements made by Hamdan to interrogators at the US air base in Bagram, Afghanistan and in Panjsher valley, also in Afghanistan. Hamdan has been held at the facility since 2002, mostly in isolation. Defence lawyers working for many of the roughly 260 detainees still being held at Guantanamo Bay say many of their clients' statements to interrogators were coerced. Earlier this month five men, including alleged September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (Arabic: خالد شيخ محمد; also transliterated as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, inter alia, and additionally known by at least fifty aliases[1]) (b. , were charged with crimes relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc the 2001 attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people. Lawyers for Hamdan plan to call Mohammed and a second of those charged, Walid bin Attash, as witnesses in his trial to support his contention that he was not a member of al-Qaeda. A[umlaut umlaut (  m`lout) [Ger.,=transformed sound], in inflection, variation of vowels of the type of English man to men. ] Aljazeera.net 2003 - 2008
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