Two former military prosecutors complained last year about the fairness of the Pentagon trials for four detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, charging the system was designed to improve the chance of conviction, The New York Times reported Monday.

Citing e-mails obtained by the newspaper, the prosecutors complained that the system also would deprive defendants of evidence that could help prove their innocence, the Times said.

The newspaper did not say how it obtained the electronic messages, which were sent separately last March and written at a time when the Bush administration was eager to have the trials, or military commissions, be viewed as fair.

Brigadier General Thomas Hemingway, a senior adviser to the office running the war crimes trials, told the Times that a Pentagon investigation found no evidence to support the two officers' accusations of legal or ethical problems.

A Pentagon spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

The newspaper said Air Force Captain John Carr claimed in his message that the chief prosecutor told subordinates that members of the commission set to try the first four Guantanamo defendants would be "handpicked" to ensure convictions.

Carr's message, addressed to then chief prosecutor Colonel Frederick Borch, also said evidence that one of the detainees has been brutalized had been lost or withheld, the newspaper said.

Air Force Major Robert Preston said in an e-mail to a colleague that he could not in good conscience write a legal motion saying the proceedings would be "full and fair" when he knew they would not.

Borch, who has since retired from the military, responded to both men in an e-mail, calling their accusations "monstrous lies," the Times said.

"I am convinced to the depth of my soul that all of us on the prosecution team are truly dedicated to the mission of the office of military commissions and that no one on the team has anything but the highest ethical principles," Borch wrote.

Carr and Preston left the prosecution teams within weeks of their e-mail messages but are still on active duty, the Times said.

Both declined to comment and Borch did not respond to messages left at his home, according to the report.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation carried a similar account of the officers' allegations.

The trials of the first four defendants began in Guantanamo last August but were halted in November by a federal judge's ruling that they violated military law and the United States' obligations to comply with the Geneva Conventions.

About 510 foreign terrorism suspects, from 40 countries and most of them captured in the US offensive in Afghanistan, are held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay. Many have been held for more than three years and only four have been charged, including Australian David Hicks.

Source: China Daily