A Pentagon judge has withdrawn charges against a Saudi detainee at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp accused of taking part in the deadly October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen.
Judge Susan Crawford, the convening authority of military commissions, ‘has withdrawn the charges’ against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Pentagon spokesman said.
However Justice Crawford ‘has withdrawn the charges without prejudice, meaning he can be charged again,’ said Jeffrey Gordon, another Pentagon spokesman.
Justice Crawford's procedural move brings the case against Mr Nashiri to a halt, at least temporarily, and falls in line with President Barack Obama’s executive order shortly after taking office calling for a 120-day delay in proceedings against terrorist suspects at Guantanamo.
Mr Nashiri was the last Guantanamo detainee to be facing trial.
Chief Judge at the Guantanamo Bay war crimes court Army Colonel James Pohl had rejected Mr Obama's request to suspend Mr Nashiri's trial.
The Saudi national was due to be arraigned on Monday, and the Pentagon prosecutor had sought the death penalty for him.
43-year-old Mr Nashiri was accused of conspiring to help two Islamic extremists who steered an explosives-laden barge alongside the US Navy destroyer Cole, which was docked at the port of Aden, Yemen.
The attackers then detonated themselves and their load.
The 12 October 2000 attack killed 17 US sailors and wounded dozens of others.
The blast punched a 12m hole in the ship’s side.
Mr Nashiri was arrested in 2002, and held in a secret CIA prison for almost four years before being transferred to the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
