Ethics Newsline®

He claims evidence was withheld from defense attorneys

WASHINGTON
A U.S. military prosecutor pursuing a case against a Guantánamo detainee quit last week, citing ethics concerns.

Army Lt. Col. Darrel Vanderveld said he was concerned about the government’s case against an Afghan detainee and about his office’s alleged failure to turn over materials to defense attorneys, UPI reports.

According to the McClatchy news syndicate, Vanderveld is the fourth prosecutor known to have resigned from the administration’s controversial program of trying detainees before military commissions.

Vanderveld, an Army reservist, filed a four-page declaration in which he claimed that “potentially exculpatory” evidence had not been provided to defense attorneys for Mohammed Jawad, a 23-year-old man accused of throwing a grenade into a jeep transporting troops, inuring two soldiers and an interpreter, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Vanderveld has declined requests for interviews and his declaration was not made public.

A Pentagon spokesman declined specific comment on the case but told the Agence France-Presse that “hundreds of thousands of pages” of documents had been turned over to defense attorneys in the 22 military commission cases currently under way.

Sources: UPI, Sep. 26 — McClatchy Washington Bureau, Sep. 26 — Los Angeles Times, Sep. 26 — AFP, Sep. 26.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, June 23 — Related Newsline story, June 16 — Related Newsline story, May 12 — Related Newsline story, Nov. 5, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Aug. 6, 2007.