US holds first Guantanamo hearing

Guantanamo Bay has been the subject of intense controversy

The first of the review tribunals for detainees held by the US military at Guantanamo Bay has taken place.

The identity of the prisoner involved has not been revealed, but officials say his hearing lasted two hours.

A panel of three military officers is deciding whether prisoners should continue to be detained as enemy combatants, or freed.

Nearly 600 detainees are being held, and all will eventually go through the process, say the US authorities.

The tribunals were set up after the US Supreme Court said that the prisoners could challenge their detentions.

But campaigners say they don't go far enough and are unlikely to head off challenges in the US courts.

Separately, the first criminal trials of Guantanamo inmates will be launched on 23 August, US officials said.

Australian David Hicks and three al-Qaeda suspects from Yemen and Sudan are scheduled for separate pre-trial hearings.

They are charged with offences related to terrorism.

Australia welcomed the announcement of a date, but Mr Hicks' lawyers said it gave them no time to prepare their case.

No civilian lawyers

The announcement on the beginning of tribunals into prisoners' status follows a Supreme Court ruling enabling inmates to challenge their detention through the US legal system.

We will begin slowly because we do want to validate our processes and procedures Gordon England, Navy Secretary

The Bush administration had protested that the detainees were "enemy combatants" and therefore were not covered by domestic US law or international conventions.

The detainees will be represented by military officers rather than civilian lawyers, leading critics to dismiss the tribunals as a sham.

The Pentagon said all inmates would be allowed to enter the process and had been informed it was their right.

During the military tribunals, detainees:

• can testify and request affidavits from witnesses

• will not have defence lawyers, but a "personal representative" instead - a military officer who is not bound by rules of confidentiality and can pass on any incriminating evidence provided by the detainees for use in future trials

• will not have access to classified information in their files. However, their representative is supposed to give them an unclassified explanation of the case against them, the US navy secretary said.

Navy Secretary Gordon England said the tribunal process "will begin slowly because we do want to validate our processes and procedures".

He said changes would be made to the process as and when necessary, but he eventually hoped to have three tribunal teams each conducting 24 cases a week.

He said they planned to complete all the tribunals in between 30 and 120 days.

'Lawless enclave'

The Center for Constitutional Rights, a legal advocacy group that represents 53 Guantanamo detainees and challenged their detention at the US Supreme Court, earlier described the reviews as a "sham".

"These tribunals are just another attempt to keep Guantanamo a lawless enclave," Joe Margulies, a lawyer with the group, was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

"The procedures they use can change at any time, even if they recommend release, Secretary England can overturn their ruling, for any reason he wants, and the so-called personal representative provided for a detainee is, by design, not the prisoner's advocate."

The BBC's correspondent Nick Childs says the tribunals are unlikely to stop other court challenges to the prisoners' detention, but will at least enable the defence department to say it has addressed concerns about its legality.