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[GUANTANAMO BAY, 5 June 2007] - A U.S. military judge has thrown out all charges against Omar Khadr, a detainee held in Gantanamo Bay since he was 15. The surprise decision marks another setback for the Bush administration's attempts to try terror suspects at the American naval base in Cuba. Presiding Judge Col. Peter Brownback said the government had failed to establish legal jurisdiction to try him. However, the decision does not mean the 20-year-old will be freed from the U.S. prison camp holding some 380 detainees. The U.S. defence department called it a "technical matter" that can be easily resolved - not a precedent that threatens the military trial process. Khadr was captured when he was 15 and later charged with throwing the grenade that killed a U.S. soldier. "The significance of this ruling is enormous," said Col. Dwight Sullivan, chief defence counsel for the detainees. "I think this is an opportunity for Congress to take another look at this system. How much more evidence do you need that this is a failed experiment?" In his decision yesterday, Col Brownback said the Pentagon had merely designated Mr Khadr, a Canadian citizen, as an "enemy combatant", not an "unlawful enemy combatant", the term used by Congress last year in authorising the tribunals. The Pentagon's lapse meant the tribunal did not have proper jurisdiction to try Mr Khadr. "A person has a right to be tried only by a court that has jurisdiction over him," Col Brownback told the court. Hours after the Khadr decision, a second judge threw out charges against Salim Ahmed Hamdan, former driver for Osama bin Laden, saying he also lacked legal jurisdiction. Further information
pdf: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,,2095552,00.html