US Court Overturns Conviction Of Bin Laden’s Afghan Driver
By RFE RL
(RFE/RL) — A U.S. appeals court has overturned the conviction of Osama bin Laden’s former driver on charges of providing material support for terrorism.
The appeals court said the activities for which Salim Ahmed Hamdan was convicted were not prohibited as war crimes under international law at the time when he engaged in those activities.
A military tribunal at the U.S. Navy Base in Guantanamo, Cuba in 2008 convicted Hamdan of providing material support for terrorism by serving as bin Laden’s driver in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
Hamdan was captured during the U.S. invasion in Afghanistan in 2001 and sent to Guantanamo two months later.
He was sentenced to 5 and 1/2 years, but was released shortly thereafter because he had already spent six years in custody.
