U.S. MILITARY Judge halts process against Yemeni man

The federal judge's ruling challenges the man's status as enemy combatant.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- A federal judge has ordered a civilian court hearing for Osama bin Laden's driver, a landmark ruling that throws into question the Bush administration's plans to bring alleged terrorists to justice through military tribunals by denying them prisoner-of-war status.
The Justice Department said it would seek an immediate stay of the Monday ruling by U.S. District Judge James Robertson and file an appeal.
The judge, ruling from Washington, halted the pretrial proceedings of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, 34, of Yemen, after his lawyers filed a petition challenging his status as an alleged enemy combatant.
Hamdan was taken captive in Afghanistan and held there for six months before being transferred to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, where he claimed to have been kept in solitary confinement for eight months.
Hamdan -- charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, murder and terrorism -- says he never supported terrorism. He was to have been the first detainee tried, on Dec. 7.
First halt to proceedings
It was the first time a federal court halted legal proceedings before U.S. military commissions, resurrected from World War II, at Guantanamo Bay. No trials have been held, although tentative trial dates for three other detainees have been scheduled.
The judge rejected the U.S. government's contention that Hamdan and other detainees are not prisoners of war but enemy combatants, a classification affording fewer legal protections under the Geneva Conventions. Hamdan was declared an enemy combatant last month by a review tribunal during a hearing from which his lawyer was barred.
"Unless and until a competent tribunal determines that petitioner is not entitled to protections afforded prisoners of war under Article 4 of the Geneva Convention ... he may not be tried by military commission ...," Robertson said in his ruling.
"There is nothing in this record to suggest that a competent tribunal has determined that Hamdan is not a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions."