The new military judge presiding over the 9/11 Guantanamo attacks trial said Wednesday that he would not rush the end of the process but wanted to see
"movement"
after nine years of hearings.
To read also "Chirac telephoned every two hours": September 11 of François Bujon de l'Estang, ex-ambassador of France in the United States
Col. Matthew McCall told court at US Base Guantanamo in Cuba that he would not prevent lawyers for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men from arguing that the rights of the accused had not been respected because they had been tortured by the CIA. A few days before the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks perpetrated by Al-Qaeda, he told lawyers, defendants and families of victims that
"this case has been going on for a really long time." "I don't feel any pressure to go to trial,"
he said, as the defense worries about possible political interference. But
"I would like to see movement,"
he added.
The second day of hearings after an 18-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic revolved around the potential biases of the judge himself. Gary Sowards, one of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's attorneys, asked Matthew McCall about his own reaction to 9/11, his experience reviewing prisoner cases in Iraq and his opinion on the issues surrounding the five-man trial. .
"It's a political trial
,
"
said Gary Sowards, asserting that the US state had used its means to cover up the torture of the accused at secret CIA sites before their arrival at Guantanamo.
"The consequences of torture are still there,"
he added.
"Their major asset is national security and state secrets"
, he said of military prosecutors.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants Ammar al-Baluchi, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi were all in the room.
They are accused of terrorism and the murder of 2,976 people in the attacks.
The judge explained that as a military lawyer he reviewed the files of detainees in Iraq in the 2000s, before they were handed over to the Iraqi justice system.
Most were not guilty of serious crimes and deserved to be released, he said.
But he said he was not responsible for those of them who were put to death by the Iraqis, and those who remained in detention despite the lack of evidence against them.
Military judge said death penalty was
"a valid option"
in the 9/11 case. Matthew McCall intends to spend the remainder of the week primarily in meetings with the prosecution and defense.