Osama bin Laden’s former driver freed

could have ramifications for other suspects as “material support for terrorism” is a common charge against detainees at the US prison camp in Cuba. A three-judge bench at the US Court of Appeals in Washington said a law that listed material support for terrorism as a war crime — approved in 2006 in response to Hamdan’s case — could not apply to him retroactively.
The court said US prosecutors instead had to rely on international law, which defines some forms of terrorism — such as the intentional targeting of civilians — as war crimes.
“But the issue here is whether ‘material support for terrorism’ is an international-law war crime. The answer is no,” wrote Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
“International law leaves it to individual nations to proscribe material support for terrorism under their domestic laws if they so choose. There is no international law proscription of material support for terrorism,” he said. Kavanaugh — an appointee of former president George W. Bush who is generally considered a conservative — also dismissed the argument that the Hamdan case was moot as he had already been released.
According to prosecutors, Hamdan moved from Yemen to Afghanistan — then coming under control of the hardline Taliban movement — in 1996 and participated in a training camp of bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network. — AFP.