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The Information
The army choose within the Sept. 11 case postponed this summer season’s hearings on Monday, citing a pending analysis of whether or not one of many 5 males accused of conspiring within the assaults is competent to face trial.
The choose, Col. Matthew N. McCall, stated in a four-page order that “it might be prudent” to delay case testimony and authorized arguments till September as a result of a panel of army psychological well being consultants was investigating the psychological competency of Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who’s accused of being a deputy within the plot.
The panel has till July 14 to report its findings. Mr. bin al-Shibh’s attorneys had argued that the defendant “can not take part in pretrial motions hearings whereas the problem of his psychological capability to face trial stays unresolved.”
The primary hearings in additional than a 12 months had been scheduled for July 3-21. Colonel McCall stated he would nonetheless journey to Guantánamo Bay for the week of July 10 for personal conferences with one other man accused within the plot, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, and his attorneys. The topic of the talks isn’t recognized, however courtroom filings have proven turmoil inside Mr. Hawsawi’s authorized staff.
Why It Issues: The case has been on maintain for greater than a 12 months.
Underneath the present courtroom schedule, the boys accused of plotting the assaults won’t return to the warfare courtroom till Sept. 18 — after the twenty second anniversary of the assaults by 19 males who hijacked 4 passenger planes on Sept. 11, 2001, and crashed them into the World Commerce Middle, the Pentagon and a area in Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 individuals have been killed.
If the panel concludes that Mr. bin al-Shibh is unfit for trial, one focus of the autumn hearings may very well be whether or not prosecutors need to name consultants to problem that discovering. Prosecutors have argued up to now that each one 5 males ought to be tried on the similar time to spare the households of the victims from a number of trials.
Background: Prosecutors need White Home assist for a plea deal.
Prosecutors initiated plea negotiations in March 2022 and have for greater than a 12 months sought a solution from the Biden administration on whether or not it helps sure assurances sought by the accused mastermind of the assault, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and his 4 co-defendants. Underneath the proposal, the boys would plead responsible to their roles within the assault in change for a most sentence of life in jail, slightly than the potential of the demise penalty.
The defendants have requested to not be positioned in solitary confinement. They’re additionally requesting the institution of a civilian care program to deal with the results of their torture in the course of the years they have been held in C.I.A. detention earlier than their switch to Guantánamo Bay in September 2006.
What’s Subsequent: Extra hearings, presumably on a query of 1 defendant’s sanity.
Prosecutors need to resume testimony from federal brokers on their interrogations of the 5 males at Guantánamo Bay in 2007. Protection attorneys have been arguing in years of pretrial hearings that these interrogations are tainted by the torture of the defendants within the C.I.A.’s abroad jail community, and the F.B.I.’s collaboration with C.I.A. interrogators within the prisons, referred to as black websites.
If the panel of consultants finds that Mr. bin al-Shibh isn’t sane sufficient for trial, the choose might additionally maintain a fact-finding listening to on what measures the army may undertake at Guantánamo Bay to deal with him. Camp 5, the place the defendants are held, has a second-floor psychiatric ward, referred to as a behavioral well being unit, with a padded cell.
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