WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for a Guantanamo Bay detainee accused of being the mastermind of the 2000 bombing of the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole in a Yemeni port to go on trial before an American war crimes military tribunal.

The justices declined to hear an appeal by Saudi defendant Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who argues that the tribunal lacks the jurisdiction to conduct the trial.

His lawyers said that because the United States was not engaged in “hostilities” with Al Qaeda, which carried out the bombing, at the time of the attack, his acts were not crimes of war.

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against him on a 2-1 vote in August 2016. His trial is due to be held at the Guantanamo Bay where he has been held since 2006.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2017