9/11 attacks: Khalid Sheik Mohammed could face death penalty

FIVE men accused over overseeing the September 11 attacks on the east coast of America are to stand trial at Guantanamo bay, it was announced last night.

FIVE men accused over overseeing the September 11 attacks on the east coast of America are to stand trial at Guantanamo bay, it was announced last night.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-accused could face the death penalty if convicted, the Pentagon said. The men have been charged with terrorism, hijacking, conspiracy, murder and destruction of property.

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President Barack Obama had previously promised to try all suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba, at civilian courts, but attempts to try the men domestically were dropped in April 2011 in the face of the widespread opposition.

The five are accused of planning and executing the 2001 attacks on New York, Washington Shanksville and Pennsylvania.

The decision to refer the case to a military commission means the five will be arraigned before a military judge at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba within 30 days.

US Attorney General Eric Holder blamed lawmakers for the policy reversal, saying their decision to block funding for prosecuting the September 11 suspects in a New York court had tied the administration’s hands and forced it to move to a military trial.

The American Civil Liberties Union condemned the decision to proceed with a military trial. “The Obama administration is making a terrible mistake by prosecuting the most important terrorism trials of our time in a second-tier system of justice,”

ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said: “Whatever verdict comes out of the Guantanamo military commissions will be tainted by an unfair process and the politics that wrongly pulled these cases from federal courts, which have safely and successfully handled hundreds of terrorism trials,” he said.

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