A hearing for an American Muslim army chaplain accused of mishandling classified material and engaging in other misconduct at the US base at Guantanamo Bay has been adjourned after the military failed to provide defence lawyers access to key evidence in the case.
A military-appointed judge yesterday ordered that the hearing, which was to determine whether Captain James Yee should face a court martial, be resumed on January 19 to give authorities time to do a proper security review of documents and other case materials.
Yee, a New Jersey-born Chinese-American who converted to Islam in the 1990s, was arrested in September on suspicion of being part of a spy ring at Guantanamo, where he had contact with some of the 660 people being held by the United States as suspected terrorists.
The soft-spoken, 35-year-old Yee was held for more than two months in a Navy brig, much of which was spent in leg irons and handcuffs. He was eventually charged with improperly taking and transporting classified material, adultery, storing pornography on a government computer and lying to military personnel.
All the charges are punishable under military law, but none are related to espionage.
Yee's lawyers said on Tuesday that the military's request to delay the hearing demonstrated that its case against Yee was in disarray and should never have been brought forward.
"There are a lot of people (in the military) who should have red faces right now," Eugene Fidell, the lead civilian defence attorney for Yee, told reporters at this Army base 100 miles southwest of Atlanta.
"I'm really hoping that cooler heads prevail and that those in authority turn their attention to more important matters," said Fidell, who added that the delay could end up violating his client's constitutional right to a fair and speedy trial.
An army spokesman said the military would use the adjournment to conduct a "classification review" of the evidence.
Prosecutors have said they are making a good-faith effort to get the defence access to documents and other materials in the case, rejecting accusations that they were trying to hide evidence or witnesses.
The abrupt halt to Yee's hearing came one day after the military began laying out its case.
On Monday a Department of Homeland Security special agent told the court that "suspicious" notes with information about detainees and interrogators at Guantanamo were found in Yee's backpack when he was searched on September 10 after arriving at the naval air station in Jacksonville, Florida.
Other witnesses testified that Yee had cheated on his wife while serving at Guantanamo and had downloaded hundreds of pornographic images onto his government-issued laptop computer, which was also seized in Jacksonville.
Yee, who left the military in the 1990s to study Arabic in the Middle East and rejoined as a chaplain before the September 11, 2001, attacks, could be sentenced to 13 years in prison if convicted of all the charges.