Government seeks voluntary statements at Guantanamo trials

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration said on Tuesday that only voluntary statements by foreign terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison should be used as evidence at their military trials or else convictions could be reversed on appeal.

Assistant Attorney General David Kris said a serious risk existed that courts would declare unconstitutional the admission of involuntary statements by the accused at their military commission proceedings.

He told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing the administration supported a bill barring the use of any statements obtained by cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, which would cover torture or other unlawful abuse.

But Kris urged Congress to go further and adopt a general standard that the statements by the Guantanamo detainees must be voluntary, though taking into account what he described as the realities of the battlefield and armed conflict.

Under existing law, coerced statements by detainees can be admitted as evidence if they had been obtained before December 30, 2005.

U.S. President Barack Obama in May revived the system of military trials for the Guantanamo Bay prisoners, angering civil liberties groups who said he had broken a promise to end the controversial tribunals set up by the Bush administration.

Obama said the commissions would be restarted as an option for trying prisoners at the U.S. military base in Cuba after undergoing several rule changes, including barring statements made under harsh interrogation and making it more difficult to use hearsay evidence.

Obama has promised to close the Guantanamo Bay prison by January. It now holds 229 detainees.

The prison was set up in 2002 to hold foreign prisoners in the U.S. war on terrorism that then-President George W. Bush declared after the hijacked plane attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

Kris, who heads the Justice Department's National Security Division, said the American judicial and the U.S. military courts martial systems both allow only voluntary statements by defendants.

"Adopting an appropriate rule on this issue will help ensure that military judges consider battlefield realities ... while minimizing the risk that hard-won convictions will be reversed on appeal because involuntary statements were admitted," he said.

The committee's bill was adopted late last month and has been sent to the full Senate for consideration.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)