WASHINGTON, Nov 5 (AFP) - A human rights group said Friday a military tribunal at a US base in Guantanamo lack legal training and said "real judges" should hear detainees' cases.
"It's astonishing that the United States would try a case of historic importance with officials who are struggling to grasp basic legal concepts," said James Ross, senior legal advisor for Human Rights Watch, who observed the hearings.
"Real courts with real judges should be trying these complex cases, not tribunals started from scratch."
About 540 detainees have been held for two and a half years at a US navy base in Guantanamo, Cuba. Most were picked up on the battlefield when US troops invaded Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks by Al-Qaeda.
However, pressure to change conditions at Guantanamo has been mounting since the Supreme Court ruled in June that inmates can challenge their detentions in US courts.
Human Rights Watch said unqualified members of the tribunal grappled with international criminal law and the laws of war.
"While resolving these issues would have been a difficult task even for veteran judges, it has been an impossible exercise for the commission, given that two of the three members who are supposed to rule on matters of law have no legal training or experience," the New York-based human rights watchdog said in a statement.
"Unsurprisingly, the two members without legal training had difficulty understanding introductory principles of the law of war or criminal justice," the group said.
This week, the commission held hearings in the case against David Hicks, a 29, an Australian held at Guantanamo for more than two and a half years.
11/05/2004 23:44 GMT - AFP