WASHINGTON: A military judge has disqualified the Pentagon's top legal adviser in the Office of Military Commissions from participating in the prosecution of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay because he exerted improper influence over a team of prosecutors and may have compromised the case's fairness.

Naval Captain Keith Allred, who is presiding over hearings in preparation for the military's trial of an alleged driver for Osama bin Laden, determined that Air Force Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann was too closely tied to prosecutors. He is supposed to be a neutral adviser to the official directing the commissions.

Military defence lawyers said although the ruling was limited to one case, they expected the issue to be raised in other cases, potentially delaying prosecutions, including the death-penalty prosecution of six detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the September 2001 terrorist attacks.