Guantanamo Bay: Defendant September 11 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other four appeared in court for the first time in more than 18 months on Tuesday because the US military prosecutor sought justice two decades after a terror attack that shook the world.
Echo the challenges of the nine years of pre-trial hearings, new judges, the Matthew McCall Colonel Air Force, postponed this session after only two and a half hours with procedural problems related to the appointment.
It is hoped that it will be continued on Wednesday, although the argument for substantive evidence issues may not be continued until next week.
Mohammed, with a dense and gray red beard, on Tuesday walked to the courtroom at the US Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when the nine-year-old trial continued after the Pandemic Covid-19.
The military court court was packed with prosecutors, interpreters, and five defense teams for Mohammed and alleged Co-conspirator Ammar Al-Baluchi, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin Al-Shibawi and Mustafa.
In the public gallery, behind the thick glass, a family member of 2,976 people defendants were accused of killing almost until exactly 20 years ago.
The defendant faced a possible execution if he was found guilty.
But the preterial phase is now in the ninth year and jammed from what is now a major problem – that the fifth was repeatedly tortured by the CIA after their arrest.
Without political intervention – President Joe Biden has promised during his campaign to close the military prison in Gulf Guantanamo – it can be more than a year before the full trial begins, especially the verdict achieved.
The trial returned in the “Justice camp” courtroom which was very safe on a hill at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
The defendants entered one by one with military escorts, and each sat on a table with their own defense team.
Mohammed wore a blue turban and matched the face mask he released to release a long and flow beard.
He chatted with Bin Attash while opening a pile of documents.
Bin Attash, who allegedly helped plan a 9/11 attack, wore a pink goal decoration and a military desert camouflage jacket, walked slowly with prosthetics on one leg he lost a shootout in Afghanistan in 1996.
Al-Shibh, a member of “cell Hamburg “from the hijacker, also wore a desert muzzle on his white cotton pants, apparently reflecting his days as al-Qaeda jihadists.
Baluchi, also known as Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mohammed’s nephew, revealed a short black beard under his mask and wore a sindhi hat from the original Balochistan, along with a traditional vest on his white robe.
He was accused of handling money transfers at the plot.
Defendant fifth, Hawsawi, who worked with Baluchi, was included in the white stylish robe.
He also brought a pillow placed in the hospital seat provided for him, because of the rectal damage he said his lawyer was issued in rough interrogation by the CIA.
McCall, the eighth to be named after leading, opened by asking each defendant if they understood the guidelines for the trial.
“Yes,” every answer, some in English and some in their own language.
He then launched a discussion about the Covid-19 protocol, after a long postponement was forced by a pandemic.
Already in recent weeks several people who have joined hearings in other Guantanamo cases have been tested positively, although strict requirements for vaccination and masks.
Reducing its own mask to speak, McCall said that everyone must remain masked unless they discuss the court.
Defense lawyers said they wanted to continue where they stopped in February 2019, building cases to discredit the majority of proof of prosecution because of torture, five survived when in the hands of the CIA between 2002 and 2006.
But restarting the trial began slowly.
The first day focused on a unique procedure for the military commission, the assessment of “Voir’s Devests” on the background of the judge himself to investigate the possibility of bias.
This procedure is sensitive to judges, prosecutors and many defense lawyers are part of the Legal Corps of the Department of Defense.