US terror suspect to get lawyer

Hamdi was originally among those taken to Guantanamo

The Pentagon has decided to allow a US-born terror suspect access to a lawyer after refusing him counsel since he was captured in Afghanistan in 2001.

Yaser Esam Hamdi, 22, is being held at a naval prison in South Carolina.

Pentagon officials said Mr Hamdi would be allowed a lawyer because interrogators had finished questioning him for intelligence purposes.

Civil liberties groups have challenged the detention of Mr Hamdi, deemed an "enemy combatant", as unconstitutional.

Mr Hamdi was first taken to the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba after being captured among Taleban fighters during the war in Afghanistan in November 2001.

He was moved to a naval prison in Charleston when it was determined that he was a US citizen.

Although he was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Mr Hamdi moved back to his parents' home country of Saudi Arabia when he was a child.

Initially, the Pentagon refused him access to a lawyer. He was classified as an "enemy combatant, a designation the Bush administration says strips a person of the right to counsel and allows indefinite detention without charge.

No precedent

But now Defence Department officials say he will be granted access to counsel, "as a matter of discretion and military policy" and "subject to the appropriate security restrictions".

Practical arrangements for a lawyer to visit Mr Hamdi would be finalised over the next few days, the officials said.

A Pentagon statement said allowing Mr Hamdi access to a lawyer "is not required by domestic or international law and should not be treated as a precedent."

The Pentagon's decision is based on the fact that he is a US citizen; he is being held in the United States; and because interrogators have finished questioning him for intelligence purposes.

The US Supreme Court is considering whether to hear an appeal from a public defender, Frank Dunham, who challenged Mr Hamdi's detention.

Mr Dunham said he welcomed the Pentagon's move but it would not affect his arguments before the Supreme Court.

"US citizens shouldn't be held without counsel for long periods of time," Mr Dunham told the Associated Press.

"I don't think it cures all the ills of this enemy combatant situation, especially for US citizens."

Washington has been accused by civil rights and legal groups for holding hundreds of prisoners without charge in its declared war on terror.

As a US citizen, Mr Hamdi is not eligible for trials by military tribunals like the foreigners being held at Guantanamo Bay.