The jury in the military commissions trial of Salim Ahmed Hamdan found Hamdan guilty on Wednesday of providing material support for terrorism, marking the first verdict rendered by a military commission trial at Guantanamo Bay. The jury, made up of six military officers, was selected on July 21, and the trial lasted for two weeks before deliberations began Monday. They found Hamdan guilty on the charge of providing material support for terrorism but innocent on the charge of conspiracy. He now faces a sentence of up to life in prison.

Hamdan has been in US custody since 2001, when he was captured in Afghanistan and accused of working as Osama Bin Laden's driver. In 2006 he successfully challenged US President George W. Bush's military commission system when the Supreme Court ruled that the commission system as initially constituted violated US and international law. Congress subsequently passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which established the current military commissions system. In April, Hamdan announced that he planned to boycott his military commission trial, and in May a military judge delayed the trial until July. A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia subsequently rejected a bid by Hamdan's lawyers to stay his trial, ruling that a civilian court should refrain from reviewing the case until the military commission issues a final judgment. In July, the military court denied Hamdan's motion to dismiss the charges against him, holding that the military commission assigned to his trial had jurisdiction to hear the case.