US

9/11 detainees want to confess

Article published on the 2008-12-09 Latest update 2008-12-10 09:54 TU

Army Chief prosecutor Colonel Lawrence Morris
(Credit: Reuters)

Five detainees charged with co-ordinating the attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001 want to plead guilty, they told a military judge late Monday. The men, held in Guantanamo Bay, are apparently challenging the government to put them to death. The case is likely to be put on hold for a number of weeks, until military counsel can resolve the issue of whether detainees who plead guilty can be executed.

"We don't want to waste our time with motions," Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of the five accused, told the court.

Military judge Army Colonel Stephen R Henley asked each man individually if they agreed with the joint statement.

"We the brothers, all of us, would like to submit our confession," said Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a detainee who is charged with primary contact between the 11 September organisers and hijackers.

Judge Henley told the accused that the procedure for imposing the death penalty would have to be reviewed, some of the detainees suggested they might change their minds if they could not be assured they would be executed.

“They would like to cut short their agony and say ‘yes we are guilty’ and ‘go and hang us, we don’t care’,” said Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the Arabic daily Al-Quds al-arabi in London.

“They would like to be hanged as heroes in the eyes of many of their supporters, people who are actually sympathetic to Al-Qaeda. They consider this as an honour,” Atwan told RFI.

Lawyers for two of the five men have made a claim that they might not be mentally competent to defend themselves.

The delay in the case means that the Obama administration will most likely have to deal with this issue when it takes office in January.