US

Three 9/11 defendants ask to be martyrs

Article published on the 2008-06-06 Latest update 2008-06-06 15:05 TU

In this photograph of a sketch by courtroom artist Janet Hamlin, reviewed by the US Military, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed stands during the court hearing
(Photo: Reuters)

At a military tribunal at the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, three of the five men accused of plotting the 2001 attacks on the US asked for the death sentence to be passed on them. They also tried to fire their defence lawyers. Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, who is considered the brains behind the attacks, was joined by Ramzi Binalshibh and Wallid bin Attash in declaring that they want to be "martyrs".

Journalists at the hearing report that the men seemed almost happy to be there, after being in prisons and detention centres for five years. It is apparently the first time they have seen each other since they were arrested.

"This is what I want, I'm looking to be a martyr for long time," Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, a Kuwaiti of Pakistani origin, told the hearing after calling for the death sentence to be passed.

"I understand that I will be killed for the sake of God, but I don't understand that I'm guilty," said Yemeni-born Binalshibh. "I refuse that I am guilty. And I know that if I am killed, I will be killed in the sake of God."

The presiding judge, Colonel Ralph Kohlmann, agreed that Sheikh Mohamed and Attash could defend themselves but would not rule immediately on Binalshibh, the only defendant to appear in court in chains, after his lawyers argued that he might be mentally unfit.

Two other defendants, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Mustapha al-Hawsawi, did not ask for the death sentence.

Pakistani-born Ali, who is Sheikh Mohammed's nephew, did ask to defend himself.

"I'm here after five years of torture," he said. "There is no justice from the beginning, from the day I was arrested until now. If there is no justice, anything can happen."

Abdel Bari-Atwan, editor of the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi, thinks that the trial is a "kangaroo court".

"Many people suspect, especially in the Middle East and in the Muslim world, that it will be similar to [former Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein’s trial," he told RFI. "I mean the ruling is already made, the decision to execute those people is taken, so it will be routine, it seems."