Guantanamo to Open Camp Justice Portable Courthouse

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — The federal government started construction on a $12 million prefabricated judicial complex to stage the upcoming military commission trials of detainees at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

The Pentagon opted to build the high-tech, MASH-like Expeditionary Legal Complex, dubbed Camp Justice, after plans to spend $100 million to construct a permanent federal courthouse building were opposed by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

The prefabricated judicial complex will feature a central courthouse comprising portable courtrooms and cells, and surrounded by support trailers that can be disassembled and moved to another location.

The complex’s courthouse centerpiece — a low-rise, windowless corrugated-metal structure — will be outfitted with several technology and communications solutions, including digital document systems and a 10-camera automated video system, designed to facilitate the trial process and international media coverage.

A reinforced, transparent partition will separate the central courtroom from a small news media and spectator gallery. Military personnel will have the capability to control access to the gallery’s audio feed for proceedings involving classified evidence, officials say.

Live audio-video feeds from the courtroom will also be sent directly to the complex’s main media center, a converted former hangar adjacent to the court buildings.

The central court components will be surrounded by a tent city that will accommodate the more than 500 court officials, lawyers, guards and reporters during the military commission proceedings.

Complete with central recreation/amenities tent, the temporary accommodations will feature military-style cots. Meals will be brought in several times a day from the main Guantanamo base and 3,000-gallon tanks will provide water.