WASHINGTON - Crucial pre-trial hearings for the accused mastermind of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks and four other men alleged to have played key roles in helping carry out the passenger plane hijackings will resume Monday in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The hearings come just days before the US is set to hold memorial services for the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks carried out by al-Qaeda 18 years ago. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a Pakistani national, is accused of being the mastermind and a high ranking al-Qaeda operative.Mohammed, who confessed to being involved in the capture and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, was subjected to extensive torture and was waterboarded 183 times.Lawyers for the defence are arguing that any confessions or other material should be invalidated because of the torture and are likely to file motions to have the entire trial set aside.
The hearings come just weeks after Colonel Shane Cohen, the judge overseeing the military tribunal, set a trial date for Jan 2021.Jury selection for the trial would likely not start before mid-2020. The tribunal overseeing the case of five defendants is a hybrid of federal and military justice system, the result of reforms enacted since the camp in Cuba became a prison for people captured during the so-called Global War on Terror.The camp has housed more than 780 people over the years.