A stay was issued in the case which halted Obaidullah's habeas petition during military commission proceedings.

The commission proceedings, which will take many months to complete and may outlast the term of the agency's chairman, Michael K. Powell, present a thicket of policy questions.

Last week, however, an appeals panel of the commission allowed the state and Suffolk County to re-enter commission proceedings, overturning a decision that had dismissed them from such hearings.

She was part of the first group of human rights monitors granted access in 2004 to observe military commission proceedings at Guantánamo Bay.

A military judge in Guantánamo turned down a prosecution request, made by order of President Obama, to suspend the military commission proceedings against a detainee there.

Mr. Miller asked, referring to the commission proceedings this week.

There is, however, no protection against self-incrimination in the military commission proceedings.

Several reporters were in Guantánamo for military commission proceedings against Omar Khadr, but were not allowed to report on Hanashi's apparent suicide until they had left the base.

"It is expected that limited courtroom seating and other logistical issues will preclude attendance by many who desire to observe military commission proceedings," he wrote.

The start of military commission proceedings has opened one new chapter in the five-year saga of the detainees at Guantánamo Bay.