126 | Towards the Closure of Guantanamo the charges involving the bombing of the USS Cole before the DC District Court. The primary issue is whether the armed conflict between the U.S. and Al-Qaeda had commenced by the time of the bombing, in October 2000. 376 311. Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi is charged in relation to a series of attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan between about 2003 and 2004, and conspiracy to commit law of war offenses. 377 He was first charged in 2013 and the first set of pre-trial hearings took place in September and November 2014. According to the schedule announced by the military commission, the pre-trial stage is expected to continue until at least July 31, 2015. 378 312. Since the opening of the detention facility in 2002, eight prisoners have been convicted by military commissions at Guantanamo, the first three by military commissions convened under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Australian David Hicks was the first detainee to have been convicted by a military commission. He pleaded guilty in April 2007, served part of his sentence in Australia and was released on December 29, 2007. As indicated in the previous chapter, Salim Hamdan was convicted at trial in 2008. After serving his sentence, he was repatriated to Yemen in 2008, where he continued to appeal his conviction. His conviction was overturned in 2012 by the DC Circuit Court. The court concluded that military commissions lacked jurisdiction to try the crime of providing material support for terrorism, which was not a war crime under international law at the time of the offense. 379 Ali Hamza al Bahlul was also convicted at trial in 2008. He was sentenced to life in prison and is serving his sentence at Guantanamo. The question of ex post facto laws was again addressed by the D.C. Circuit in his case. On July 2014, the Court vacated two of the three convictions (material support and solicitation) and affirmed the conspiracy conviction. 380 The court remanded that conviction to the original panel of the Court for it to dispose of remaining issues. On October 22, 2014, the DC Circuit heard oral arguments on the single conviction left standing. 313. Five detainees have been convicted under the 2009 MCA. Following a plea agreement before military commissions, Sudanese citizens Ibrahim al Qosi and Noor Muhammed, and Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, were transferred to their home countries. In 2010 and 2011, Ibrahim al Qosi and Noor Muhammed pleaded guilty to providing material support to Al-Qaeda and conspiracy to provide material support and were sentenced to 14 years in confinement. In exchange for the guilty plea and promise to cooperate, the period of confinement was reduced to two years 376 377 378 379 380 See in this regard, Just Security, New al-Nashiri developments… regarding the MV Limburg and USS COLE charges by Marty Lederman, October 17, 2014 (Updated as of November 2014). Available at: http://justsecurity.org/16395/al-nashiri-cmcr-limburg-charges/. Department of Defense, Office of Military Commissions. Department of Defense, Office of Military Commissions, Unofficial/Unauthenticated Transcript, R.M.C. 803 session, September 15, 2014, pp. 26 and 61. Available at: http://www.mc.mil/Portals/0/pdfs/alIraqi/al%20Iraqi%20(TRANS15Sep2014-PM).pdf Hamdan v. U.S., 696 F.3d 1238 (2012). Al Bahlul v. U.S., (2014). Organization of American States | OAS