Accused plotters: US sets stage for trial of 9/11 mastermind

WASHINGTON:

The United States on Wednesday unveiled charges against the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, along with four alleged plotters, vowing to seek the death penalty in a long-delayed military trial.

The announcement set the stage for a much-awaited trial of Mohammed and other accused conspirators, who have been held for years at the US-run prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, amid a legal and political battle in the United States over how and where to prosecute them.

“The charges allege that the five accused are responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks of September 11, 2001,” the Defense Department said in a statement.

“The convening authority referred the case to a capital military commission, meaning that, if convicted, the five accused could be sentenced to death.”

Mohammed, along with Walid bin Attash of Saudi Arabia, Yemen’s Ramzi Binalshibh, Pakistan’s Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali – also known as  Ammar al-Baluchi – and Mustapha Ahmed al-Hawsawi of Saudi Arabia are due to appear in court for arraignment proceedings within 30 days, the Pentagon said.

Mohammed has been at the center of a years-long debate over the legal fate of the accused plotters. After he was captured, Mohammed was subject to harsh interrogations and repeated “water boarding,” a simulated drowning technique that has been widely condemned as torture.

His treatment in US custody has raised questions whether his statements to interrogators will hold up in a trial, but testimony from a former aide may resolve that problem.

His former deputy, Majid Khan, accepted a plea deal recently with US authorities that will require him to testify against other terror suspects, including the alleged 9/11 plotters.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2012.