[JURIST] A US military judge ruled [opinion, PDF] Monday that authorities at the Guantanamo [JURIST news archive] detention center provide adequate medical care to Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the accused ringleader of the USS Cole bombing [JURIST report]. The defense claimed that Nashiri was unfit to stand trial due to inadequate medical treatment. The judge found that the defense failed to show that the US Government, “as the detaining power, has shown a deliberate indifference to the accused’s medical needs as required” by the relevant precedent. The opinion notes that “the Defense … failed to demonstrate how the medical treatment the Accused is or is not receiving is adversely impacting the proceedings.”

In December Nashiri’s counsel argued before the European Court of Human Rights [official website], accusing [JURIST report] Poland of serving as a secret torture site for the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) [official website] extraordinary rendition program [JURIST news archive]. Last year Colonel James Pohl ordered a mental health examination [JURIST report] for Nashiri to determine whether he was competent to stand trial. This came after Pohl refused to halt [JURIST report] further hearings in response to unsubstantiated allegations by defense counsel that the government was eavesdropping on private conversations with their client. The month before, Pohl denied a motion [JURIST report] by Nashiri’s lawyers to to dismiss the alleged violations of the Military Commissions Act (MCA) [text, PDF] on the grounds that the bombing occurred “prior to the commencement of hostilities” between the US and al Queda.