A Yemeni national who allegedly served as an Al-Qaeda propagandist was found guilty of terrorism charges in the second US military trial of a "war on terror" detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon said Monday.
A panel of military officers handed down the guilty verdict against Ali Hamza Ahmad al-Bahlul on Friday, but it was sealed until Monday, said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
Bahlul, 39, was found guilty of conspiracy, solicitation to murder and acts of terrorism, and providing material support for terrorism, a Pentagon statement said.
A sentence will be handed down after a separate hearing, it said.
"Based on the crimes for which he has been convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison," it said.
Bahlul's trial was the second of a "war on terror" detainee at Guantanamo Bay under a specially created system of military commissions that has been criticized by civil rights activists and lawyers as lacking full protection of defendants' rights.
Bahlul boycotted the trial and, on his instructions, his court-appointed military lawyer remained silent throughout the proceedings, said Jamil Dakwar, who observed the trial for the American Civil Liberties Union.
"Unfortunately, because the system is fundamentally flawed and lacks any semblance of due process, a cloud of illegitimacy hangs over this verdict," Dakwar said.
"The next president should close Guantanamo and future prosecutions should occur in criminal or military courts where the constitution still means something and where verdicts, no matter what they are, can be trusted," he said.
In the first such trial, military jurors in August found Osama bin Laden's former driver Salim Hamdan guilty of providing material support to terrorism, but rejected stronger terrorist conspiracy charges.
Hamdan was sentenced to a net of five more months in jail, after considering the years he already spent in US custody.
The Pentagon said Bahlul's case will undergo automatic review by the Pentagon official overseeing the trials, and then by a Court of Military Commission Review.
He can then appeal the verdict to the US Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.
The US military alleged that Bahlul was Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's personal secretary and his media secretary.
It charged he underwent military training at an Al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, swore allegiance to bin Laden and helped produce numerous propaganda videos.
They allegedly included a video entitled "The destruction of the American destroyer USS Cole," depicting the October 12, 2000 bombing attack on the US naval ship in Yemen, which killed 17 American sailors.
According to the charges, the video aimed "to solicit material support for Al-Qaeda, to recruit and indoctrinate personnel to the organization and objectives of Al-Qaeda and to solicit, incite and advise persons to commit terrorism."
Bahlul is also accused of preparing the video of the last "martyr wills" of Mohammed Atta, the leader of the 19-man team that hijacked four passenger jets to crash them into US buildings on September 11, 2001.
