Attorney General John Ashcroft called the verdict "a major victory in the global war on terrorism.” We share the Attorney General’s view that reliance on the German criminal justice system was appropriate, and we urge Mr. Ashcroft to use the U.S. criminal justice system to prosecute similar cases, rather than designating suspects as “enemy combatants” or transferring them to military commissions.

The German government pursued this case within its criminal justice system, and the United States should follow that example. The Justice Department has successfully prosecuted Richard Reid and John Walker Lindh already. It should end the military detentions of Yasser Hamdi and Jose Padilla as “enemy combatants” and abandon its plan to use ad hoc military tribunals outside both the civilian criminal justice system and the regular - and widely respected - military court-martial system. If these or other individuals have committed crimes, they should be charged and tried, as el-Motassadeq was prosecuted in Germany.

Under German law, el-Motassadeq may appeal his conviction, and on appeal will have the opportunity to address the issues of whether the government's decision to withhold potentially exculpatory evidence from him was unfair. This right to an independent judicial review - a right that will be denied defendants in the Administration’s proposed military commissions - is one of the bedrock elements of a fair criminal justice system and helps assure both the reality and the appearance of justice in the criminal courts.

The Lawyers Committee believes that suspected figures in al Qaeda and the Taliban who are accused of involvement in the September 11 attacks or other crimes against U.S. individuals or property should be tried in U.S. federal courts, regardless of whether they are apprehended within the U.S. or abroad. The same holds true for suspects extradited to the U.S. The U.S. criminal justice system, which has already shown itself capable of dealing with complex terrorist cases, is the proper venue for trying suspects found in or extradited to the United States. This approach is one that we believe best serves long-term U.S. interests and upholds America’s core values of due process.