A US war crimes court at Guantanamo reconvened on Wednesday over the case of a Saudi Arabian prisoner accused of plotting with al Qaeda to blow up ships, but the hearing was halted due to translation problems that have plagued the process.
The defendant, Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al Darbi, understood the proceedings well enough to tell the judge, Army Colonel James Pohl, that he believed the court in a US naval base in a remote part of Cuba was illegal. "I believe there is no international court or local court in the United States that treats detainees or accused people the same way we are treated here," al Darbi said through an Arabic-English translator.
He called the tribunal "a crime against humanity, a crime against the law and a crime that defies any kind of justice." Pohl tried to question al Darbi on whether he wanted a US military or civilian lawyer but the exchange was difficult to follow because the translators' voices competed with the judge's. The translators worked in a booth outside the courtroom and their voices were broadcast simultaneously via earphones so the defendant could listen in Arabic and into the courtroom so his answers could be repeated in English.
The lawyers, the defendant and the court reporter could not keep up, so Pohl recessed the hearing until the problems could be fixed. Translation issues have interrupted the hearings since 2004, when the US military first convened the special court to try foreign captives on terrorism charges at the naval base, rather than in the regular US civilian or military courts.
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