US:A SUDANESE prisoner with long ties to Osama bin Laden has told the war crimes tribunal here that the September 11th, 2001, attacks dealt heavy blows to US security and exposed the "hypocrisy" behind American claims that it stands for equality and justice.
Appearing on Thursday at his arraignment, Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi refused to accept legal representation for his trial before the Pentagon's military commissions. After a rambling statement, he announced that he would boycott further proceedings.
The 47-year-old was the third Guantánamo defendant in the past month to call the military tribunal illegitimate and refuse to co-operate in his own defence.
"I leave in your hands the camel and its load for you to do whatever you wish," he told air force Lieut Col Nancy Paul, the judge preparing for his trial on charges of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism.
Mr Al-Qosi also accused the US military of discrimination against citizens of the Third World, noting that two British detainees and an Australian charged along with him four years ago have since been released under pressure from those governments.
"The only war crime I committed and for which I'm being tried today before you and which I admit having committed is in truth my nationality," said Mr Al-Qosi, a tall, slender man with a greying beard.
"My crime is that I'm a Sudanese citizen."
A day earlier, Saudi prisoner Ahmed Muhammed Ahmed Haza Al-Darbi deemed the tribunal a "sham" and announced he would boycott subsequent sessions. On March 12th, Afghan defendant Mohammed Jawad also rejected the forum.
The succession of defendants refusing to co-operate with the tribunal puts the onus on the US government to "show that this is not a complete sham", said Jamil Dakwar, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union observing the arraignment.
He said Mr Al-Qosi's claim of nationality bias called into question "the guarantee of equality before the law that is a hallmark of American justice".
Col Paul, the only woman judge at the tribunal, had accepted Mr Al-Qosi's rejection of military legal representation or any other lawyer willing to submit to the government's rules and practices.
Unlike US federal courts, the Guantánamo tribunal permits hearsay evidence and information gleaned from coercion and makes no guarantee that the accused is able to confront his accusers or know all the evidence against him.
Mr Al-Qosi said he would act as his own lawyer and insisted on reading his statement to the tribunal.