The military judge presiding over the case of a Canadian detainee at Guantanamo Bay has been abruptly dismissed without explanation.
Judge Peter Brownback was dismissed from the case of Omar Khadr yesterday by Marine Colonel Ralph Kohlmann, the chief judge of the special military commissions trying US detainees.
Judge Brownback was replaced by Judge Patrick Parrish, an army colonel.
Omar Khadr, 21, faces trial on charges of killing a US soldier with a hand grenade during a July 2002 firefight in Afghanistan when he was 15 years old.
Lieutenant Commander William Kuebler, Omar Khadr's military defence lawyer, said he learned of the action in a two sentence email at the close of business announcing that a new judge had been detailed to the case.
He said that it was a surprise to him and that no explanation was given.
But he said the timing was disturbing because it came amid a struggle over disclosure of evidence in which Judge Brownback had put off a trial date until the prosecution produced more evidence to the defence.
Additionally, the Canadian supreme court ruled 23 May that to prepare his case Omar Khadr should have access to classified information unlawfully obtained by Canada.
The dismissal of Judge Brownback was the latest in a series of moves pointing to disarray in the special legal system set up by the Pentagon to try terrorism suspects.
It followed the disqualification earlier this month of the chief legal advisor to the military commissions, Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann, from participating in another Guantanamo case.
He was disqualified for pressing for war crimes prosecutions of cases that would capture the imagination of the American people.
That decision was based in part on testimony by the former chief military prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis, who resigned last year in protest against pressure exerted by Gen Hartmann.
The Pentagon is still mulling whether to appeal the disqualification.
