Bin Laden’s Driver Found Guilty by Military Tribunal

Posted on August 6, 2008

The ACLU are sure to be crying about human rights violations any minute now.

A U.S. military jury Wednesday convicted Osama bin Laden’s driver of war crimes — making him the first war-on-terror captive convicted by contested tribunal at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The jury announced the verdict against Salim Hamdan at 10:16 a.m.

It cleared him of the more serious crime of conspiracy but convicted him of multiple counts of providing material support for terror.

Conviction can carry a maximum life imprisonment.

The six U.S. officers who convicted him get to next deliberate on his sentence.

The jury of six officers got the case Monday after extensive closing arguments. They deliberated a total of 6 ½ hours Monday and Tuesday at this U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

Hamdan, 37, was captured in November 2001 in Afghanistan by allied U.S. troops. He had two surface-to-air missiles in his car when captured and has been held at Guantánamo since May 2002.

Attorneys presented the war crimes case and Hamdan’s defense over the past two weeks. Conviction could carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.