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Alleged 9/11 conspirators postpone offers to plead guilty at military commission hearing

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Three out of five Guantanamo Bay detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed architect of the 9/11 attacks, on Monday postponed their offers to plead guilty to the charges against them after the judge required competency hearings for two of the suspects. The five defendants indicated at a military commission pre-trial hearing on Monday that they wished to plead guilty to the charges relating to the 9/11 attacks. The judge, Army Col. Stephen Henley, initially accepted the requests from three of the suspects - Mohammed, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Walid bin Attash - but ruled that competency hearings were required for Mustafa al-Hawsawi and Ramzi Bin al-Shibh. Mohammed, Ali, and Attash then withdrew their offers to plead guilty until the competency of al-Hawsawi and al-Shibh is determined. Henley was assigned to the Mohammed trial last month, following the retirement of Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann. The Pentagon approved death penalty charges against Mohammed and the four other suspects in May, and they were arraigned in June. In February, CIA Director Michael Hayden publicly acknowledged that Mohammed had been subjected to waterboarding during interrogation.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 10, 2008 (boomark / email).