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-- A. Serwer
Daphne Eviatar has an important piece today discussing the potential criminal indictment facing Mohammed Jawad -- who the government agreed to release last week--and the possibility that the witnesses in that case were compensated by the U.S. government for their testimony:
Asked about the claims that the government’s witnesses had been paid for their testimony, Dean Boyd, spokesman for the Justice Department’s National Security Division, wrote in an e-mail that “Jawad has not been charged with any crime in federal court. To begin speculating in public about possible evidence or witnesses in such a case is inappropriate and not an exercise the government will engage in.” He did not say that the government would not or cannot pay or otherwise compensate witnesses in these circumstances, however. Jawad’s defense lawyers, meanwhile, have not been reticent about their view of the evidence.Obviously, this has pretty important implications for the cases the government is building against other detainees. One military commissions prosecutor I spoke to downplayed the importance of sworn statements to these cases, arguing that physical evidence and the testimony of U.S. soldiers was far more significant. In civilian prosecutions, witnesses are often motivated to testify through say, plea bargain deals, but this looks like it crosses a line. It also implicitly highlights the problematic manner in which detainees are often rendered into U.S. custody--through bounty hunters seeking financial rewards for capturing insurgents--often with little proof that these people are actually guilty.
-- A. Serwer
