WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- A former aide of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden boycotted a US military court when he was brought to a trial Wednesday at the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo,Cuba.

    Ali Hamza Ahmad al-Bahlul, a 37-year-old Yemeni, defiantly told the U.S. war crimes tribunal he will boycott the court because he was not allowed to defend himself and did not recognize its authority.

    U.S. prosecutors allege Bahlul had made a videotape on bin Laden's orders to glorify al Qaeda's October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

    He is also accused of wearing an explosive belt to protect bin Laden when he traveled with him in 2001.

    During his court appearance, Bahlul held up a sign written in Arabic which reads "boycott."

    "I am boycotting all sessions, even if I'm forced to be present,"Bahlul said via a translator.

    He also managed to speak out the word "boycott" in English.

    In the end, Army Col. Peter E. Brownback, the presiding officer of the tribunal, denied Bahlul's request to represent himself and set a May 15 trial date.

    It was the second time Bahlul appeared before a war crime tribunal, which was set up by the U.S. military under the authorization of U.S. President George W. Bush, in order to try "enemy combatants" after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001.

    Later Wednesday, a separate panel was to start hearing the caseof Omar Khadr, a Canadian who was only 15 when he was detained in Afghanistan in 2002 and accused of killing a US military medic with a hand grenade during a battle.

    Khadr's defenders have also protested over the handling of the trials.

    The latest hearings came on the fourth anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo detention facility for prisoners roundedup in Afghanistan, Iraq and other hotspots in the "war on terror" declared by Bush in 2001.

    At present, there are about 500 prisoners from almost 30 countries in Guantanamo, most of them being detained indefinitely without a trial. Enditem