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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 3:12 a.m., Monday, November 3, 2008

Jury to announce verdict in 2nd Guantanamo trial

Associated Press

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — A Guantanamo detainee who allegedly made videos used to train al-Qaida terrorists was expected to learn today whether a U.S. military jury has convicted him of war crimes that could send him to prison for life.

Jurors in the trial of Ali Hamza al-Bahlul were scheduled to reconvene to announce the verdict following a weeklong trial at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

Al-Bahlul, 39, is charged with conspiracy, solicitation to commit murder and supporting terrorism. He faces up to life in prison if convicted on any of the charges. Sentencing was expected to immediately follow the verdict.

A Yemeni who was brought to Guantanamo in 2002, al-Bahlul is the second prisoner to go through a war crimes trial under the special military commissions system.

The military claims al-Bahlul committed war crimes by serving as chief propagandist for al-Qaida and as an aide to its leader, Osama bin Laden. Videos made by the defendant were allegedly shown to terrorist recruits at training camps in Afghanistan.

Prosecutors say al-Bahlul acknowledged to interrogators that he was al-Qaida's media chief and made propaganda videos for bin Laden. Al-Bahlul doesn't consider his actions criminal.

The military has determined him to be an unlawful enemy combatant, and says any work he did for al-Qaida is by definition a war crime because al-Qaida is a terrorist organization.

In a pretrial hearing, al-Bahlul called the military tribunal a "legal farce" and refused to mount a defense. His Pentagon-appointed lawyer stayed silent during the trial, refusing to even answer questions from the judge.