US will try dozens of Guantanamo detainees

Washington - There are at least 70 detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba who will face a trial before a US military commission in the next few years, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Trials are not expected to begin until 2007 under President George W Bush’s Military Commission Act approved by Congress earlier this year, Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, said.

There are about 450 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. About a dozen have already been charged with war or terrorism related crimes. But the trials have been held up due to legal challenges in US federal courts.

Bush earlier this month signed a law authorizing the commission. The law was passed in response to a Supreme Court ruling last summer that said the president needs congressional authorization to conduct the trials.

‘Only those detainees who will be charged with law of war violations and other grave offences, estimated to be more than 70 detainees, will be subject to military commissions,’ Gordon said.

The Pentagon has identified more than 100 detainees at Guantanamo who can be released to other countries or taken into custody by other governments, but has been unable to work out the arrangements for their repatriation.

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur