Gitmo detainee decries hearing

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, April 9 (UPI) -- A Saudi defendant accused of plotting to destroy ships in the Straits of Hormuz Wednesday denounced the U.S. war crime court where he was charged.

Ahmed Haza al-Darbi said the hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was an unlawful "theatrical piece" and refused to participate in the remainder of the proceedings.

Al-Darbi, 33, told the judge presiding over the military commissions the court was "a crime against divine justice and a crime against earthly justice."

The brother-in-law of a Sept. 11, 2001, hijacker, according to the U.S. military, al-Darbi was arrested in Azerbaijan in 2002 on charges he had aided al-Qaida in an attempt to blow up ships off the coast of the Arabian Peninsula. He was transferred to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, where he claims he was tortured by U.S. soldiers.

Al-Darbi's attorney said his client told him he was bound in handcuffs and hung during lengthy interrogations.

"I believe there is no international court or local court in the United States that treats detainees or accused people the same way we are treated here," said al-Darbi, who has been a prisoner at Guantanamo for six years.