The Conservatives' beloved Gitmo off the rails again

Chalk up another legal ruling that undermines the Guantanamo Bay military commission process: "Gitmo judge bars coerced evidence."

The judge in the first Guantanamo Bay trial barred evidence yesterday that interrogators obtained from Osama bin Laden's driver, ruling he was subjected to "highly coercive" conditions in Afghanistan.

The ruling could have implications for the trial of Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, whose case is scheduled next.

The judge said the prosecution cannot use a series of interrogations conducted at the Bagram Air Base and Panshir, Afghanistan, because of the "highly coercive environments and conditions under which they were made."

Despite this ruling, the Kafkaesque outcome for detainees is assured:

But because of the administration’s claim that it can hold unlawful enemy combatants indefinitely, even an acquittal would not mean release. It would simply mean he would return to his status as a detainee being held indefinitely — until, according the administration, the end of the war of terrorism.

The prosecution can't lose. Even if ultimately, they do. This is the disgraceful judicial process to which the Harper Conservatives remain committed.