US trying to bring 2nd Gitmo detainee to US trial

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday signaled it will try to bring a second Guantanamo Bay detainee to the United States for trial in criminal court.

Federal prosecutors told a court Friday they no longer plan to hold Mohammed Jawad as a wartime prisoner.

Instead, they wrote in a court filing, they plan to begin a criminal investigation. That would most likely mean bringing him to criminal trial in the United States.

Even if that happens, Jawad is not likely to be transferred soon. For the time being, prosecutors say, he will remain at the Navy-run detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, while an “expedited” criminal investigation is conducted.

To bring him to a U.S. courtroom, the government must first present enough evidence to a grand jury to indict Jawad and beat back any attempts by his lawyers to have Jawad freed before such an indictment is filed.

So far, the only Guantanamo detainee brought to face trial in a U.S. criminal court is Ahmed Ghailani, who was sent to New York in June to face charges he helped orchestrate two bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said prosecutors are trying to build a criminal case against Jawad, but that does not ensure he will face an American jury.

The decision “does not resolve whether evidence would support a criminal prosecution,” Boyd said.

The government task force reviewing the cases of the 229 remaining Guantanamo inmates has previously referred Jawad for possible prosecution.

Boyd said that new evidence includes eyewitness testimony and that the agency will make a determination as soon as possible on whether to file criminal charges against Jawad.

One of Jawad’s lawyers said the decision was a stalling tactic by the government to avoid losing the case.

Prosecutors “are trying to manufacture new excuses to whisk him away from a federal judge who is poised to rule against them,” said Jonathan Hafetz, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Jawad.

“They are just trying to play the clock and play the courts,” Hafetz said. “There is no basis to hold him right now; he’s being illegally detained.”

Jawad’s lawyers have sought to have him returned to Afghanistan.

Jawad has been detained at Guantanamo Bay for 6½ years after being accused of tossing a grenade at a jeep in Afghanistan that wounded two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department agreed not to use his confession after his lawyers argued the statements were the result of torture by Afghan authorities.

Jawad’s attorneys say he was only about 12 years old at the time, although there aren’t records of his birth in a refugee camp in Pakistan. The Pentagon says a bone scan shows Jawad was older, about 17, when he was arrested.

In October, a military judge threw out a confession made by Jawad following his arrest. The judge found that Jawad initially denied throwing the grenade and only admitted it after Afghan authorities threatened to kill him and his family if he didn’t confess.

The military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay allow evidence obtained through coercion but not torture, leaving it to a judge to decide whether the line between coercion and torture has been crossed. In Jawad’s case, the judge found the threats made by the Afghans were a form of torture. Jawad is now suing for his release in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Afghan officials turned Jawad over to U.S. custody shortly after he confessed. He was questioned by U.S. officials overnight. The military judge said Jawad’s statements during that interrogation couldn’t be used because they were tainted by the torture at the hands of the Afghans just a few hours earlier.