The Defense Department announced today that the Convening Authority, Office of Military Commissions, referred charges to a military commission in the case of “United States v. Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza Al Darbi.”
According to the release:
“The referred charges allege, among other things, that al Darbi planned, aided and abetted in a course of conduct that resulted in the suicide bombing of the civilian oil tanker M/V LIMBURG near al Mukallah, Yemen, on Oct. 6, 2002. During that attack, one civilian mariner was killed and twelve others injured.
Based on these allegations and others outlined in the charge sheet, al Darbi is charged with attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, hazarding a vessel, terrorism, attempted hazarding a vessel, and attempted terrorism.
The Convening Authority referred the charges to a non-capital military commission. In accordance with military commission rules and procedures, the chief trial judge of the Military Commissions Trial Judiciary will assign a military judge to the case, and al Darbi will be arraigned at Guantanamo within 30 days of service of the referred charges upon him.
The charges are only allegations that the accused has committed offenses punishable under the Military Commissions Act, and the accused is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Source: DOD http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=16524
More information, including the relevant charge sheet, is available at the Office of Military Commissions website at http://www.mc.mil/.
According to his Guantanamo docket Al Darbi was a former trainer of al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan and was personally involved in the panning and execution of terrorist attacks and operations worldwide including the 9-11-2001 attacks which killed over 3000 in America. He was also a personal acquaintance of Osama Bin Laden.
Source: http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/768-ahmed-muhammed-haza-al-darbi