'Osama won't be caught alive to face trial'

Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden will not be tried in a US courtroom because he won't be caught alive, a top US law enforcement official has said.

Appearing before a congressional committee for budget testimony on Tuesday, US Attorney General Eric Holder said: "We will be reading Miranda rights (a warning given by police in the United States to criminal suspects in police custody, or in a custodial situation, before they are interrogated), even if he is not under arrest) to a corpse of Osama bin Laden. He will never appear in an American courtroom."

"The possibility of catching him alive is infinitesimal. He will be killed by us or he will be killed by his own people so he can't be captured by us," he added.

Compared terrorists to mass murderers like Charles Manson (convicted of murder and other charges in connection with a two-night rampage that left pregnant actress Sharon Tate and seven others dead), Holder said: "Terrorists in court have the same rights that Charles Manson would have, any other kind of mass murderer. It doesn't mean that they're going to be coddled, it doesn't mean that they're going to be treated with kid gloves."

Holder defended criminal trials as a better way to prosecute terrorism suspects, saying that past trials have been successful and proved to be easier to get guilty pleas from suspects.

"They are tested ... they are secure, we have tried these cases in a safe manner," he said, adding, "Our allies around the world support us in bringing these cases in (criminal) courts."

Image: US Attorney General Eric Holder before US House Appropriations Committee in Washington
Photograph: Larry Downing/Reuters