Prosecutors seek 30 years for Hamdan (1st Lead)

Aug 7, 2008, 16:49 GMT

Washington - US military prosecutors asked a jury Thursday to send Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, to prison for at least 30 years following his conviction on providing military support for terrorism charges.

A six-officer military jury was to begin deliberating the sentence for Hamdan, 37, in the first tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Major Gail Crawford, a spokeswoman for the military commissions, confirmed.

Hamdan took the stand earlier asking for leniency, telling the panel that he only took the job from bin Laden because he needed the money, CNN reported.

Hamdan testified one day after he was convicted of providing material support for terrorism. He was found not guilty of the more serious charge of conspiracy to commit terrorism, but could still receive a life imprisonment sentence.

The six-officer military jury concluded that Hamdan was guilty after a trial that lasted just more than two weeks.

Hamdan's case was the first to go to trial in the military commissions ordered by President George W Bush, and also the beginning of the first US military tribunals since World War II.

Hamdan is the second conviction under the commissions. Australian David Hicks pleaded guilty in 2007 and was sent back to his native country to serve out the remainder of his sentence. He is now free.

Hamdan was captured in 2001 in Afghanistan and has been held at Guantanamo since May 2002. He is among the 20 of Guantanamo's 265 detainees facing war crimes charges. The Pentagon plans to charge an additional 80 suspects.

The US government alleges that Hamdan, a Yemeni, was a member of al-Qaeda terrorist network leader Osama bin Laden's inner circle and was aware of terrorist plots. The defence argued that Hamdan merely served as a driver and was not involved in terrorism.