's Eastern Peninsula. Bahlul faced charges before a
Guantanamo military commission prior to the
United States Supreme Court ruling in
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006) that the
Bush Presidency lacked the
constitutional authority to create military commissions that, without adequate justification, substantially deviated from the rules of procedure and evidence applicable at U.S. courts-martial. He was indicted along with
Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi.
Lieutenant Commander Philip Sundel, his first military defense attorney, described the difficulty in getting a security clearance for a translator to talk to his client. Sundel told
CBS News: "There's virtually no chance he can get a fair trial." Bahlul asked
Peter Brownback, the president of the commissions, if he could represent himself.
Carol Rosenberg of the
Miami Herald, reported that Bahlul would be allowed to represent himself before the newly authorized military commissions, although he was not previously allowed to do so before the Presidentially authorized commissions. David McFadden of the
Associated Press reported that only three reporters covered Bahlul's trial, associated with the
Miami Herald, the
Associated Press, and
Reuters. The new law authorized detainees to represent themselves by choice.
Testimony of members of the "Buffalo Six" In late October 2008, three of the men from the group known as the "
Buffalo Six" testified at Bahlul's Guantanamo military commissions. They testified on having been shown a two-hour video that Bahlul produced.
Conviction On November 3, 2008, Bahlul was convicted of conspiring with al-Qaeda, soliciting murder and
providing material support for terrorism. At his sentencing, he admitted he was a member of al-Qaeda, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Isolation from the other captives Rosenberg has reported that, following his conviction, Al-Bahlul was separated from the other captives.
Appeal Rosenberg in the
Miami Herald reported that Bahlul's military defense attorneys filed a 50-page appeal of his sentence on grounds of
free speech. The appeal was the second filed with the
Court for Military Commission Review. A panel of the D.C. Circuit vacated Bahlul's remaining conspiracy conviction in June 2015. Judge
Judith W. Rogers, joined by
David S. Tatel, found that
conspiracy is not a crime under the international
law of war, with Judge
Karen L. Henderson writing a 85-page dissent. On September 25, 2015, the D.C. Circuit vacated its June judgment and granted the Government's petition for rehearing
en banc. The Circuit specifically directed the rehearing would consider the standard of appellate review and as to if Congress's attempts to define and punish war crimes transgresses the
Article III powers of courts. On October 20, 2016, the full D.C. Circuit voted 6–3 to affirm Bahlul's conspiracy conviction. Circuit Judge
Brett Kavanaugh, wrote the four-judge
plurality opinion for Judges Henderson,
Janice Rogers Brown, and
Thomas B. Griffith, finding that Congress can make crimes triable before military commissions even if those crimes are not internationally recognized
war crimes. Judges
Patricia Millett and
Robert L. Wilkins, voted to affirm Bahlul's conviction but did not join the plurality's opinion, each writing that the case should be decided on more narrow grounds. ==References==