B*N*S*N4
Read on:
Judge refuses to suspend Guantanamo trial
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A military judge at Guantanamo Bay Thursday rejected President Barack Obama's request to suspend the trial of a Saudi accused in the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, the Pentagon said.
"Judge James Pohl denied the motion" put forward by the prosecution at the request of Obama to suspend the trial for 120 days, said Defense Department spokesman J.D. Gordon, confirming a report by The Washington Post.
The October 2000 attack on the Cole left 17 people dead and injured many more.
In his first full day in office last week, Obama ordered the closure of the controversial detention center within a year and for a review of the cases of each of the "war on terror" suspects still held there.
But no decision has yet been made on what to do with the estimated 245 detainees still held at Guantanamo, most of them without charge.
Saudi defendant Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 43, was due to say whether he pleads guilty or not at a hearing set for February.