 Camp Delta ... Lieutenant Commander Matthew Diaz, 40, is accused of copying and transmitting secret documents about war-on-terror detainees / AP |
A US Navy lawyer accused of leaking the names of detainees at a US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a non-governmental organisation will be court-martialled, the navy said overnight.
Lieutenant Commander Matthew Diaz, 40, is accused of copying and transmitting secret documents about war-on-terror detainees at the US naval base in Guantanamo to unauthorised persons.
According to the charge documents, Mr Diaz acted "with intent or reason to believe that the said information was to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation."
Mr Diaz appeared yesterday before a military judge at a naval base in Norfolk, Virginia. At the arraignment, Mr Diaz used his right to not immediately enter a plea to the charges filed against him in late July, the navy said.
The date of his court-martial has not yet been scheduled. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 36 years in prison.
Mr Diaz was assigned for six months in 2004 as a legal adviser at the Guantanamo base.
He was charged in July 2006 following an investigation into documents carrying detainee names and other identifying information handed over by an unnamed non-governmental organisation to US justice authorities, the navy said.
Mr Diaz, who has served 20 years in the military, has since been assigned to administrative duties in Jacksonville, Florida.
For several years the military had refused to release the names of the several hundred detainees at the Guantanamo facility, making it difficult for outside lawyers and human rights organisations to act in their defence.
The names were released in 2006 only in response to lawsuits filed by a news organisation.
The US government established the Guantanamo facility in the months after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks to interrogate prisoners rounded up in countries such as Afghanistan as part of the US war on terror.
In all, nearly 800 prisoners have passed through the camp since it opened. The US government says about 395 detainees remain at Guantanamo, most held without charge.
Washington hopes to prosecute 60 to 80 in military tribunals, while another 86 could soon be repatriated. The fate of the rest remains unclear.
