Osama bin Laden’s former driver was found guilty today of providing material support for terrorism at the first US war crimes trial since the Second World War.
Salim Hamdan was convicted by a jury of US military officers following a two-week trial at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
He was accused of transporting missiles for al-Qaeda and helping Bin Laden escape capture by US forces following the September 11th terror attacks by driving him around Afghanistan.
But the jury acquitted Yemeni-born Hamdan on additional charges of conspiring with al-Qaeda to commit war crimes.
Hamdan, who faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, will be sentenced later today.
The trial is the first full test of the controversial Guantanamo tribunal authorised by the Bush administration to try non-US captives on terrorism charges outside the regular civilian and military courts.
The jury heard two weeks of testimony, including that of 10 federal agents who interrogated Hamdan without warning him that his confessions would be used against him.
It was the Bush administration's third attempt to try Hamdan, who won a Supreme Court victory that scrapped the first version of the Guantanamo court system. The charges were twice dropped and re-filed.
The charges he was cleared of today - two of conspiring with al-Qaeda to attack civilians, destroy property, commit murder in violation of the laws of war - were the only charges against him in the first prosecution attempt.
He was convicted today of five counts of providing material support for terrorism, including that his personal services to al-Qaeda included driving and acting as a bodyguard for a man he knew to be the leader of an international terrorist organisation.