Guantánamo trial sentence stuns Bush administration

The jury had already given a rebuff to the Bush administration with its verdict, acquitting Hamdan of two conspiracy counts and finding him guilty only of the charge that the defendant essentially admitted in courtthat he had worked as a driver for Osama bin Laden for several years before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Following the verdict, the trial judge, Navy Capt. Keith J. Allred, consolidated the five specifications of material support approved by the jury into a single count, and instructed them to determine the sentence accordingly, although they could still have imposed a life sentence. He also told the jurors that he would credit Hamdan with more than five years in Guantánamo since he was first charged.

The judge refused to credit Hamdan with the time served before he was chargedhe was first seized by US military forces in Afghanistan in November 2001and he postponed action on a defense request to give three to five months credit for every month Hamdan was held in solitary confinement or subjected to abusive interrogation.