George Clooney has paid an undisclosed seven figure sum for the film rights to a book based on the detention and trial of Osama bin Laden's driver, it has emerged.

Jonathan Mahler's book 'The Challenge' documents the long campaign by US navy lawyer Charles Swift and the Georgetown law professor Neal Katyal to ensure a fair trial for Hamdan.

George Clooney has bought the rights to make a film about the detention of terrorist Osama Bin Laden's driver

Entertainment industry newspaper Daily Variety said it was not clear what role Oscar-winning actor-director Clooney would take in the project, which will be based on.

osama's driver Salim Hamdan: Clooney has controversially bought the rights to the book of his detention in Guantanamo

According to Variety, Clooney could direct, and write the film.

Its also strongly rumoured that Clooney – whose performance as hero of legal thriller Michael Clayton earned him an Oscar nomination last year – will play Mr Swift himself.

Last week Hamdan was sentenced to just under five years in prison.

The sentence was later described by Swift as a "stunning rebuke" to the government's case against Hamdan.

Prosecutors had demanded the Yemeni be jailed for 30 years, portraying him as a cunning Al Qaeda warrior.

Clooney, the star of the "Ocean's 11" films who won an Oscar in 2006 for his role in the spy drama "Syriana," will next be seen in Joel and Ethan Coen's black comedy "Burn After Reading."