First case filed after tribunal ban lifted

WASHINGTON, April 21 (UPI) -- U.S. military prosecutors have filed their first capital case against a Guantanamo Bay detainee since the Obama administration lifted its ban on new trials.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, one of 15 high-value prisoners, was charged Wednesday with murder, terrorism and other violations in connection with the October 2000 attack in Yemen on the destroyer USS Cole, The Washington Post reported.

Nashiri, 46, a Saudi citizen of Yemeni descent, has been in U.S. custody since 2002.

A report by the CIA inspector general and other government documents indicate he spent time at secret CIA prisons overseas where he was waterboarded and subjected to mock executions.

Nashiri said at a 2007 military hearing that he confessed to involvement in the Cole bombing only because he was tortured.

The military alleges that Nashiri was "in charge of the planning and preparation" of the Cole attack which killed 17 U.S. sailors and ripped a 30-by-30-foot hole in the Navy destroyer.

The case against him raises difficult legal questions, said Eugene Fidel, the president of the National Institute of Military Justice.

"It's a mare's nest of legal issues," said Fidel.