American 'Taliban' denied access to case against him

Legal campaigners criticised a US federal court ruling yesterday that said the government did not have to reveal its evidence to an American citizen accused of fighting with the Taliban and al-Qa'ida.

The fourth circuit court said Yaser Hamdi, 22, from Louisiana did not have the right to see the prosecution's case in advance. In its ruling, the three-judge panel said: "The safeguards that all Americans have come to expect in criminal prosecutions do not translate neatly to the arena of armed conflict." Mr Hamdi was seized in Afghanistan in November 2001.

The Bush administration welcomed the ruling. It has contended that it can deny enemy combatants who are US citizens access to a lawyer or to see the evidence against them. But Susan Herman, a professor at Brooklyn Law School, said: "This decision condones the government's creation of a constitutional no-man's land."