9/11 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed To Face Military Tribunal May 5

A US military judge has set a May 5 arraignment for alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other accused plotters, officially setting in motion the long-delayed legal proceedings against the al Qaeda members.

The Saturday hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:00am local time in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, where they are currently incarcerated. The trial, which could still be several months away, will also be held at the facility.

“At the 5 May 2012 session, I will establish a full schedule for the litigation in this case,” Col. James Pohl, the chief judge in the case, said in his order.

The five will be arraigned on charges that include terrorism, hijacking aircraft and murder in the violation of the law of war. They face the death penalty if convicted for their roles in the 2001 attacks that left nearly 3,000 dead on US soil.

Defense attorneys had sought to avoid charges that carried the death penalty and wanted the five to face separate trials.

Mohammed and his alleged conspirators have been incarcerated at the controversial US military prison in Cuba for years while political battles raged on how and where to try high-value al Qaeda members.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced in 2009 that the 9/11 plotters would be tried in civilian courts, but in 2011 he reversed course and said the accused terrorists would be tried by military commission at Guantanamo Bay after his plans were met with resistance from members of Congress and New York City residents.

The decision to try Mohammed and his cohorts by military commission means that active duty commissioned military officers will take the place of civilian jurors in deciding whether the five are guilty as charged.

Because of the death penalty charges, at least 12 officers will make up the military commission.

Pakistani intelligence agents apprehended Mohammed in a raid in 2003 and he was soon transferred to US authorities. In 2006, President George W. Bush announced that Mohammed was among the al Qaeda captives who had been held in secret CIA prisons before being transferred to military custody at Guantanamo Bay.

Bush has admitted the US waterboarded Mohammed, which could result in some of the evidence against the 9/11 mastermind to be deemed inadmissible.

But the evidence issues in the case were possibly mitigated when Mohammed’s deputy, Majid Khan, accepted a plea deal with military prosecutors earlier this year in which he agreed to testify against al Qaeda’s former operations chief.

Mohammed will be tried alongside Walid bin Attash of Saudi Arabia, Ramzi Binalshibh of Yemen, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali of Pakistan, and Mustafa al Hawsawi of Saudi Arabia.

Mohammed’s lieutenants are accused of helping the 9/11 hijackers train for the suicide mission as well as providing financial support for the attack.

{NY Post/Matzav.com Newscenter}