Fourth Guantanamo inmate charged

The first trials may be held by the end of the year

The US military has filed terrorist charges against a fourth prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.

Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita said Salim Ahmed Hamdan, from Yemen, will face a military tribunal.

"His charges include among other things conspiracy to commit attacks on civilians, and terrorism," he said.

Mr Hamdan's lawyer, Lt Cmdr Charlie Swift, has said his client acknowledges being a driver for al-Qaeda in Afghanistan but denies terrorism.

Fifteen detainees at the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba have been identified as potential defendants for military tribunals.

Two years in captivity

Mr Hamdan is the fourth to be charged, after Australian David Hicks, Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al-Bahlul of Yemen and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi of Sudan.

They are expected to be tried by a five-member military tribunal, led by retired Colonel Peter Brownback.

No date has been set, but a Pentagon spokesman said they were aiming to hear the first case by the end of the year.

It is unclear whose trial will take place first.

Last month, the US Supreme Court ruled that the detainees at Guantanamo are entitled to challenge their detentions in a US court.

Nearly 600 detainees from 40 countries are currently being held at the Cuba base.

Some have spent more than two years in captivity without being charged.

Prisoner 'chained'

Mr DiRita also dismissed allegations of torture made on Wednesday by a newly-released Swedish prisoner from Guantanamo Bay.

Mehdi Ghezali said he was interrogated nearly every day, chained, and exposed to freezing cold, noise and bright lights during his two-and-a-half year imprisonment.

The Pentagon spokesman said: "I think we're going to hear from people being released all manner of things."

He said the interrogation procedures used at Guantanamo "were within international standards".