{"id":28843,"date":"2025-01-11T11:49:54","date_gmt":"2025-01-11T16:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=28843"},"modified":"2025-01-11T11:49:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-11T16:49:54","slug":"in-court-with-the-9-11-mastermind-two-decades-after-his-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2025\/01\/11\/in-court-with-the-9-11-mastermind-two-decades-after-his-arrest\/","title":{"rendered":"In court with the ‘9\/11 mastermind’, two decades after his arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sitting on the front row of a war court on the US’s Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the world’s most notorious defendants, appeared to listen intently.<\/b><\/p>\n

“Can you confirm that Mr Mohammed is pleading guilty to all charges and specifications without exceptions or substitutions?” the judge asked his lawyer as Mohammed watched on.<\/p>\n

“Yes, we can, Your Honour,” the lawyer responded.<\/p>\n

Sitting in court, 59-year-old Mohammed, his beard dyed bright orange and wearing a headdress, tunic and trousers, bore little resemblance to a photo\u00a0circulated shortly after his capture<\/a>\u00a0in 2003.<\/p>\n

Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the 9\/11 terror attacks on the US, had been due to plead guilty this week – more than 23 years after almost 3,000 people were killed in what the US government has described as “the most egregious criminal act on American soil in modern history”.<\/p>\n

But two days later, just as Mohammed had been set to formally enter his decision – the product of a controversial deal he struck with US government prosecutors – he instead watched silently as the judge said the proceedings had been paused under the orders of a federal appeals court.<\/p>\n

It was expected to be a landmark week for a case that has faced a decade of delays. Now, with a new complication, it continues into an uncertain future.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be the forever trial,” the relative of one of the 9\/11 victims said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A plea on hold<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Mohammed has previously said that he planned the “9\/11 operation from A-to-Z” – conceiving the idea of training pilots to fly commercial planes into buildings and taking those plans to Osama bin Laden, leader of the militant Islamist group al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n

But he has not yet been able to formally admit guilt to the court. This week’s pause comes amid a dispute over a deal reached last year between US prosecutors and his legal team, under which Mohammed would not face a death penalty trial in exchange for his guilty plea.<\/p>\n

The US government has for months\u00a0tried to rescind the agreement<\/a>, saying that allowing the deal to go ahead would cause “irreparable” harm to both it and the American public. Those in support of the deal see it as the only way forward in a case that has been complicated by the torture that Mohammed and others faced in US custody and questions over whether this taints the evidence.<\/p>\n

After a last-minute appeal by prosecutors, a three-judge panel at the federal appeals court called for the delay to give them time to consider the arguments before they would make a decision.<\/p>\n

But families of victims had already flown on a once-weekly flight to the base to watch the pleas in a viewing gallery, where thick glass separated them and members of the press from the rest of the sprawling high-security courtroom.<\/p>\n

\"Guantanamo<\/a>
Guantanamo Bay Camp Justice (Image: (AP \/ Alex Brandon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The attendees had won their place at this week’s proceedings through a lottery system. They arranged child care and paid for kennels for their pets to attend – knowing that they could be called off at any minute. They learnt Thursday night while speaking to the media at a hotel on the base that the pleas would no longer go ahead.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Miller, whose father, New York City firefighter Douglas Miller, died in the attacks when she was six years old, said she was in favour of the deal going forward to “bring finality”, but recognised that there were other families who felt it was too lenient.<\/p>\n

“What’s so frustrating is that every time this goes back and forth, each camp gets their hopes up and then gets their hopes crushed again,” she said, as other relatives nodded in agreement.<\/p>\n

“It’s like a perpetual limbo\u2026 It’s like constant whiplash.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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