Guantanamo judge drops charges against Canadian

GUANTANAMO BAY US NAVAL BASE, Cuba, June 4 (Reuters) - The military judge presiding at Omar Khadr's war crimes tribunal dismissed all the charges against the young Canadian today, saying he did not meet the definition of those subject to trial under a new law.

Army Col. Peter Brownback said a military review board had labeled Khadr an ''enemy combatant'' during a 2004 hearing in Guantanamo.

But the Military Commissions Act adopted by the US Congress in 2006 said only ''unlawful enemy combatants'' could be tried in the Guantanamo tribunals. Brownback said Khadr did not meet that strict definition.

This was the latest setback for the Bush government's efforts to put the Guantanamo detainees through some form of judicial process.

It was forced to rewrite the rules last year after the US Supreme Court deemed the old tribunals illegal.

Brownback dismissed the charges, but left open the possibility that charges could be refiled if Khadr went back before a review board and was formally classified as an ''unlawful enemy combatant.'' Khadr, who was captured in a firefight in Afghanistan at age 15, was accused of killing a US soldier with a grenade and wounding another in a battle at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002.

He was also charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism along murder, attempted murder and spying, for allegedly conducting surveillance of U.S. military convoys in Afghanistan.

Khadr wore a tan prison uniform and had a shaggy beard during the brief hearing.

72 HOURS TO APPEAL One of the prosecutors, Army Capt. Keith Petty, said Khadr clearly met the definition of an ''unlawful'' combatant because he fought for al Qaeda, which was not part of the regular, uniformed armed forces of any nation.

He said he was prepared to produce a video of Khadr wearing civilian clothes while planting a roadside bomb, as evidence he was an unlawful combatant.

Brownback said the 2006 law authorizing the tribunals made a distinction between ''lawful'' and ''unlawful'' combatants and he could not proceed unless Khadr was formally declared to be the latter.

Congress wrote the law after the US Supreme Court struck down an earlier version of the tribunals established by President George W Bush to try terrorism suspects at Guantanamo.

Brownback, who gave prosecutors 72 hours to appeal his ruling, said he was bound to strictly follow the new rules as Congress wrote them.

It was not immediately clear who prosecutors could appeal to. But Marine Col Dwight Sullivan, the chief defense counsel for the Guantanamo war crimes trials, said Brownback's ruling was further evidence the tribunal system was a failed experiment.

''We don't need any more evidence that it's a failure,'' Sullivan said. ''This system should just stop.'' He said none of the 380 prisoners at Guantanamo had been declared ''unlawful enemy combatants'' and therefore the ruling put the brakes on any further trials.

The ruling also cast doubt on the legality of Australian prisoner David Hicks' guilty plea, according to Sullivan, since Hicks also had not been declared an ''unlawful enemy combatant.'' He pleaded guilty in March to a charge of providing material support for terrorism and was sent home to Australia to serve a nine-month sentence.

REUTERS AM VC2330