Release of ‘enemy combatant’ sparks sentencing row

The Washington Times reports Hamdi will not be charged with any crime under an agreement with federal officials. Instead he will be required to give up his American citizenship and will be sent to Saudi Arabia, where he grew up. The move has sparked anger in another camp with an attorney for John Walker Lindh, another American ‘Taliban’, asking President George W Bush to commute his client’s 20-year prison sentence for aiding the Taliban. Attorney James Brosnahan says the sentence should be reduced because Hamdi is being freed. Lindh (23) was captured in 2001 during the Afghanistan war and was sentenced in 2002 under a plea deal. However, officials say there is no comparison between the Hamdi and Lindh cases. Lindh pleaded guilty in a court of law to supporting the Taliban, they said, while Hamdi never was in the criminal-justice system. Full report in The Washington Times