Judge orders Padilla's military jailers to testify

[133724]

MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. military prison doctors and staff must testify in court about the treatment of suspected al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla while he was held by presidential order as an "enemy combatant," a judge ruled on Friday.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke ordered a Pentagon lawyer and seven military and civilian prison employees to appear for questioning at a hearing on Thursday to determine if Padilla is mentally competent to stand trial on terrorism charges.

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Cooke ruled that since a psychiatrist's judgment that Padilla was fit to stand trial was based partly on conversations with doctors and staff at his military brig, their testimony was relevant for Padilla's mental competency hearing.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-02-17T011400Z_01_N2G285702_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-PADILLA.xml&src=rss

[Morgana LaFey]

1. Good. That's the least that should happen. Let's hope there'll be

much more to follow. People should be made to pay for reducing this guy to an incompetent.