Published on ShanghaiDaily.com (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/)
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200812/20081209/article_383774.htm
Pretrial starts for 9/11 chief planner
Created: 2008-12-9 0:56:25
SPORTING a chest-length gray beard, the confessed architect of the September 11 attacks appeared before a military judge and relatives of his alleged victims yesterday.
The pretrial hearings this week could be the last court appearance for the high-profile detainees at Guantanamo Bay as the first United States war-crimes trials since World War II teeter on the edge of extinction.
Nine relatives of victims of the 2001 al-Qaida attacks were on hand to observe the pretrial hearing of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed at the Navy base in southeastern Cuba, but were not visible in images relayed to a press room nearby. Five were chosen by military lottery and brought four other relatives with them.
President-elect Barack Obama opposes the military commissions, as the Guantanamo trials are called, and has pledged to close the detention center holding some 250 men soon after taking office next month.
Mohammed and the other defendants will appear before Army Colonel Stephen Henley, who was assigned to the case after the previous judge resigned for undisclosed reasons in November. The defendants, who are representing themselves, are expected to question Henley about whether any conflicts would prevent him from impartially overseeing the death-penalty case.
No trial date has been set, and it is all but certain none will begin before Obama takes office on January 20. Still, the US military is pressing forward with the case. "We serve the sitting president and will continue to do so until President-elect Obama takes office," said Navy Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman.
The pretrial hearings this week could be the last court appearance for the high-profile detainees at Guantanamo Bay as the first United States war-crimes trials since World War II teeter on the edge of extinction.
Nine relatives of victims of the 2001 al-Qaida attacks were on hand to observe the pretrial hearing of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed at the Navy base in southeastern Cuba, but were not visible in images relayed to a press room nearby. Five were chosen by military lottery and brought four other relatives with them.
President-elect Barack Obama opposes the military commissions, as the Guantanamo trials are called, and has pledged to close the detention center holding some 250 men soon after taking office next month.
Mohammed and the other defendants will appear before Army Colonel Stephen Henley, who was assigned to the case after the previous judge resigned for undisclosed reasons in November. The defendants, who are representing themselves, are expected to question Henley about whether any conflicts would prevent him from impartially overseeing the death-penalty case.
No trial date has been set, and it is all but certain none will begin before Obama takes office on January 20. Still, the US military is pressing forward with the case. "We serve the sitting president and will continue to do so until President-elect Obama takes office," said Navy Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman.
Agencies
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