Bin Laden's driver in the dock as first US war crimes trial since 1945 begins

The first US war crimes trial since the Second World War opened in a small room at Guantanamo Bay yesterday. Salim Hamdan, the former driver and alleged bodyguard of Osama bin Laden, entered a plea of not guilty to charges of conspiracy and supporting terrorism as proceedings began in the room near a runway at the Cuban base.

"You must impartially hear the evidence," Judge Keith Allred, a Navy captain, told the officers on the jury. "He must be presumed to be innocent."

The US military commissions, as the tribunals are known, have been condemned by human rights organisations and several European politicians as a legal sham designed to secure convictions despite the fact that evidence has been obtained under torture. The US is expected to prosecute between 60 and 80 of the 260 Guantanamo detainees.

Judge Allred suggested yesterday that some of the evidence obtained from Mr Hamdan in Afghanistan would not be admitted. US forces reportedly beat, punched and kicked him, held him in stress positions and subjected him to severe cold to obtain confessions.

Mr Hamdan, 37, wore a khaki prison jumpsuit as he appeared before the judge and jury of uniformed officers. The 13 officers of the jury were selected by the Pentagon and taken to Guantanamo at the weekend. A minimum of five officers must be selected for a trial under tribunal rules.

If he is convicted, Mr Hamdan could be sentenced to life imprisonment. His trial is expected to last three or four weeks, with nearly two dozen Pentagon witnesses giving evidence.

The trial is set to be a test of whether the Bush administration can administer fair and impartial justice to some of the most notorious terrorist suspects in its custody. Among the "high-value" detainees is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, who confessed after undergoing "waterboarding" – a technique which induces a sensation akin to drowning – at the hands of the CIA.

The rules under which Mr Hamdan is being tried mean evidence that has been obtained by torture is considered admissible, as is hearsay. Even if he is acquitted, he is unlikely to be released soon. As the subject of a famous Supreme Court ruling which threw out the original system of military trials, his experiences with the US justice system are already Kafkaesque.

It is seven years since George Bush declared an "extraordinary emergency" to send terrorist suspects before military judges. Even the prosecution agrees that Mr Hamdan is a small fish, but his trial is seen as a dry run for the prosecution of some 15 "high-value" detainees, a number of whom have admitted under torture that they were part of the September 11 attacks. Mr Hamdan is accused of bringing weapons to the battlefield for al-Qai'da, a charge he denies. He has been branded an "enemy combatant" by the US military, and this status would not be affected by an acquittal in his military trial. He says he was abused by his jailers and he has been diagnosed as clinically depressed, a result, his psychiatrist says, of being held in almost total isolation. In seven years he has been allowed one phone call to his family in Yemen, and has not had any visitors.