Guantanamo prosecutor quits

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba – Contending that the government suppressed evidence that could help a young man facing life in prison, a prosecutor has quit the war-crimes tribunals here, several military defense lawyers said Wednesday.

Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld quit the case – and the Office of Military Commissions – after growing concerned about the lack of due process afforded Mohammed Jawad and his legal team, according to Michael J. Berrigan, deputy chief defense counsel for the commissions.

Vandeveld, an Army reservist, did not return messages, and he has told superiors that he does not wish to comment, Pentagon officials said.

Jawad, now about 23, was arrested in 2002 near Kabul, Afghanistan. He is charged with attempt to commit murder in violation of the law of war for allegedly throwing a hand grenade into a jeep that was transporting troops, which caused injury to two soldiers and a translator. His trial is set for December.

His Pentagon-appointed defense attorney, Air Force Maj. David Frakt, said the prosecutor quit in recent days over significant concerns about the case.

“He was uncomfortable being a prosecutor under the conditions, and (his superiors) told him to do his job,” Berrigan said, adding that Vandeveld took his concerns to higher authorities but was rebuffed.

Both defense lawyers said Vandeveld had spelled out his allegations in a sealed affidavit. According to Berrigan, Vandeveld said in his declaration that prosecutors knew Jawad may have been drugged before the attack and that the Afghan Interior Ministry said two other men confessed to the same crime.

Hearings in Jawad’s case are being held today and Friday. Frakt said that he had moved to call Vandeveld as a defense witness and that the prosecutor had indicated he would testify both about his ethical concerns and about his desire to offer Jawad a plea deal. But Vandeveld’s superiors rejected the plea deal and blocked his testimony, Frakt said, adding that he might ask the judge, Army Col. Steve Henley, to compel it.

The assertions by Berrigan and Frakt were denied Wednesday by Army Col. Lawrence J. Morris, lead prosecutor for the military commissions. Morris said Vandeveld told him he was quitting for personal reasons, and he would not discuss whether his office had rejected any proposed plea deal for Jawad. He described Vandeveld as a disgruntled prosecutor “who was disappointed that his superiors did not agree with his recommendations in the case” in recent weeks.

“There are no grounds for his ethical qualms,” Morris said.

Several prosecutors have quit or asked to be reassigned in protest, including Air Force Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor for the military commissions. He went public with claims that he had been pressured by politically appointed senior Defense officials to pursue cases deemed “sexy” in the run-up to the 2008 elections.