Trial of accused 9/11 mastermind resumes, days before 20th year of terror strikes

The prosecution of alleged September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others restarted on Tuesday, just days before the 20th anniversary of the attacks, stirring new hopes for justice and retribution.

Mohammed and his co-defendants, who have been locked up at a prison at the US naval tinue where they left off, mired in the defence’s efforts to disqualify most of the government’s evidence as tainted by the torture the defendants underwent in CIA custody.

On Sunday, the new military judge, US Air Force Colonel Matthew Mccall - the case’s eighth - signalled a slow start, deciding that an initial hearing focused on his own qualifications will take place on Tuesday. Lawyers for both sides are tary prosecutors refuse to hand over, defence attorneys said the pretrial phase could easily last another year, placing far over the horizon any hope for a jury trial and verdict.

Asked if the case could ever reach that point, one defence attorney, James Connell, replied, “I don’t know.”

Attorneys say the five defendants - Mohammed, Ammar al-baluchi, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-shibh and Mustafa 15 years in harsh, isolated conditions since arriving.

They will appear in a secure military commissions courtroom surrounded by fences of razor wire, each with his own defence team. In the audience will be family members of some of the 2,976 people they are accused of murdering two decades ago, as well as a large contingent of reporters to mark the confluence with the sombre anniversary on Saturday.