Rights group slams trial

The trial of Salim Hamdan exposed the fundamental flaws of the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights Watch said. Jennifer Daskal, a senior counter-terrorism lawyer at Human Rights Watch, said the commission "handicapped" the defence and the flaws in the system "won out". The special military commissions at the US Navy Base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have faced a series of legal challenges. Set up by President George Bush's administration in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks, the military commissions were invalidated by the US Supreme Court in 2006, only to be restored a few months later by the US Congress. But in June this year, the US Supreme Court ruled that foreign terror suspects captured abroad have the right to challenge their detention in US courts - a ruling that delayed the opening of Hamdan's... [read full story]