9/11 mastermind's trial to start
2008-06-05 09:05
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base - The military expects a confrontational hearing when the accused mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks and four alleged confederates are brought before a Marine colonel presiding over their war-crimes tribunal.
During the arraignment on Thursday, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will make his first public appearance since he was captured in Pakistan in 2003. He was later held in CIA custody at secret sites and transferred to the US Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2006.
Air Force Brigadier General Tom Hartmann, a top tribunal official, told dozens of journalists late on Wednesday that he expects defence lawyers will robustly argue points with prosecutors and Judge Ralph Kohlmann on behalf of their clients, who face the death penalty.
"Expect to see challenges tomorrow," Hartmann said at a briefing in an abandoned aircraft hangar near the courthouse at the isolated US base in Cuba.
'Fundamentally flawed'
Army Colonel Steve David, chief defence counsel for the tribunals, said the military commissions are "fundamentally flawed".
"We will zealously identify and expose each and every (flaw)," Davis said on Wednesday.
The US Supreme Court struck down the commissions as unconstitutional in 2006 before they were altered and resurrected months later. The tribunals have been mired in confusion over courtroom rules and dogged by delays.
Military commissions have been conducted since George Washington used them after the end of the Revolutionary War, but this is the first time the United States has used them during an ongoing conflict, Hartmann said.
Mohammed is represented by two officers from the Navy and the Air Force. The Pakistani also will be represented by two civilian attorneys from Idaho, including one who defended a client accused in the white supremacist Ruby Ridge case.
Defence attorneys for the five detainees accused in the September 11 attacks that killed 2 973 people say the US is rushing the case to trial to influence the presidential elections. They recently asked Kohlmann to throw out the case and remove Hartmann, who was accused of political meddling by a former chief prosecutor for the military commissions.
- AP