Court-martial dropped

last updated 8 January 2015

Miami

The U.S. military has dropped all criminal charges against an Islamic Army chaplain originally accused of espionage. Army Capt. James Yee, who ministered to Muslim detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was never formally charged with taking top-secret documents out of the prison camp for Taliban fighters. Instead, the military charged him with mishandling documents, downloading pornography onto his government computer, and having an adulterous affair with a female Army officer. At a hearing in December, prosecutors put Yee’s mistress on the stand, as his wife wept. But the Pentagon decided last week not to proceed with the case, saying the evidence against Yee included documents that could compromise national security. Yee’s attorney, Eugene R. Fidell, scoffed at that explanation. “Chaplain Yee has won,” he said, and “is entitled to an apology.”