Questions raised over "flawed" September 11th trial
Tuesday, 12 Feb 2008 20:12
Pentagon critics attack decision to try 9/11 suspects in Guantanamo Bay military commissions
Activists have claimed the trial of six men over the September 11th terrorist attacks will be "flawed" if it is held at Guantanamo Bay.
New York-based Human Rights Watch says the trial should be moved from the controversial military commissions to federal courts in the United States.
"The time to bring the masterminds and planners of 9/11 to justice is long overdue, but this needs to be done in a system that has credibility," said the organisation's senior counterterrorism counsel Jennifer Daskal.
Announcing the charges yesterday, the Pentagon insisted the six suspects would be afforded the same rights as American soldiers by the military commissions.
Among the suspects is Khalid Shekh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of the attacks that killed almost 3,000 people.
The other five men charged are: Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarek bin Attash; Ramzi Binalshibh; Ali Abdul Aziz Ali; Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi; and Mohamed al-Kahtani.
Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann, legal adviser to the department of defence's office of military commissions, told reporters yesterday that the death penalty would be sought against the six Guantanamo detainees.
But he insisted they would be given a fair trial.
"The accused are, and will remain, innocent unless proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," Brig Gen Hartmann claimed.
"Every piece of evidence, every stitch of evidence, every whiff of evidence" will be available to the defendants, he said.
The trials, for which no date has yet been set, are expected to last months, while any death sentences could take years to be carried out while they are scrutinised by civilian courts.
"So we are a long way from determining the details of the death penalty, and when that time comes, if it should ever come at all, we will follow the law at that time and the procedures that are in place at that time," Brig Gen Hartmann added.