Saturday, 12 May 2012
Sunday, 6 May 2012
Show of defiance in military court by 9/11 accused
ACCUSED terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his alleged co-conspirators put on a show of defiance during a marathon war court hearing, sitting mute rather than answer their US military judge's questions ahead of their trial on charges of planning the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.
A case that has stuttered across two US administrations - beginning, leaving and returning to the military over the past four years - opened with clear signals from Mohammed, his four co-defendants, and their military and civilian defence lawyers, that they will make every effort to disrupt and delay the proceedings.
The men are charged with murder in violation of the law of war, hijacking and terrorism, among other charges. All of them deferred entering a plea. The case is likely to be the most public and contested examination of the reformed military commissions that were backed by the Obama administration and passed by the US Congress in 2009.
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''Why is this so hard?'' the judge, army Colonel James Pohl, declared in exasperation.
The five accused allegedly trained, advised and financed the 19 hijackers who commandeered airliners and then crashed them into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, killing 2976 people. All could get the death penalty, if convicted.
The day began with guards carrying one accused terrorist, alleged trainer Walid bin Attash, into the maximum-security courtroom strapped into a restraint chair. The judge said guards chose to put the captive in restraint because of his behaviour outside the court. The long session concluded about 12 hours later with the chief prosecutor, army Brigadier-General Mark Martins, and other prosecutors reciting the 87-page charge sheet in English - and an interpreter echoing each paragraph in Arabic because the accused refused to don headphones for simultaneous translation.
In between, the men slowed the process by not only accepting each of the judge's offers for three prayer calls that required recesses in the long hearing but also by adding extra prayers in the midst of the proceedings.
Saturday's rare war court session was the first appearance of the men since January 21, 2009. During the hearing, Mohammed, a 47-year-old Pakistani national, stroked his straggly thick beard, grey when last seen, but now tinged heavily reddish-brown with henna, and stared ahead blankly or looked down at notes on his desk.
He refused to speak about whether he wanted to keep military and civilian counsel or represent himself. The others followed suit.
Mohammed's civilian lawyer, David Nevin, said the reason his client was not participating was because of the ''torture that was imposed on him''. Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in the first month after his capture in March 2003, according to government reports.
The next hearing will be held in mid-June.
Source : http://www.smh.com.au
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