WASHINGTON: A Guantanamo Bay military judge this week will hear a request by a suspect in the Sept 11, 2001, attacks for a separate trial, a move that comes after the US judge ordered one for another accused plotter.
Mustafa Ahmed Al Hawsawi, a 46-year-old Saudi, argued in a pretrial filing that his alleged role was smaller than his four co-defendants’ and joint prosecution would violate his rights to a fair trial and to confront accusers.
Al Hawsawi, who is suspected of helping move the September 11 hijackers to the United States, also did not share a common intent with the others to commit the attacks, the filing on the war-court website said.
His motion is among 20 to be heard by Army Colonel James Pohl, the judge overseeing the hearings set to run from yesterday to Friday at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Al Hawsawi is among five men, including suspected ringleader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, charged with conspiring to kill civilians in the hijacked airliner attacks. Almost 3,000 people were killed at New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania.
Pohl ordered a separate trial last month for Ramzi bin Al Shibh, a 42-year-old Yemeni who allegedly helped run the Hamburg, Germany, cell of hijackers.
In his ruling, Pohl said removing Al Shibh was in the interests of justice because of issues related to his competence to stand trial and a potential conflict of interest in his defense team.
Al Shibh has complained he hears sounds and vibrations in his cell. He was ordered out of the courtroom in December for outbursts about “torture” and a “secret CIA prison.”
Prosecutors filed an emergency motion on July 29 to reverse the ruling.
REUTERS
