Bush Overstepped Bounds With War Crimes Trials: Supreme Court

U.S. President George W. Bush went too far in his anti-terror campaign when he created military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay prisoners, according to a judgement by the country’s highest court.

In a 5-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Bush overstepped his authority with the proposed tribunals, which Justice John Paul Stevens says are illegal under U.S. law and the Geneva Convention.

The case centred on Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who worked as a bodyguard and driver for Osama bin Laden. He’s been held at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the past four years, and faces a charge of conspiring against American citizens between 1996 and 2001.

Among the other prisoners facing trials, 19-year-old Canadian Omar Khadr, who was to have appeared at one on June 26 ^th. The hearing was postponed as the high court made a decision on whether it should go ahead.

Khadr, captured by U.S. forces during their invasion of Afghanistan in 2002, is alleged to have killed an army medic during a firefight in which the then-15-year-old youth was also injured.

Considered an illegal combatant by the U.S., he faces several charges including murder. His lawyer, Lt.-Col. Colby Vokey, was happy to hear of the Supreme Court ruling.

“Beautiful. I think it’s the right decision,” Vokey said, declining to comment further until he studied the judgement fully.

The teen isn’t the only member of the Khadr family accused of having terror ties. Patriarch Ahmed Said Khadr was killed fighting Pakistani soldiers in 2003, and was allegedly a financier for al-Qaida. Omar’s siblings, all Canadian citizens, have each been either suspected of or investigated for links to terrorism.

The Guantanamo Bay prison, meanwhile, has come under intense scrutiny from the international community, with many calling for it to be closed. Canada hasn’t made its position on the subject clear.