A Severance Order in the 9/11 Case
The Washington Post reports of a new ruling from the military judge yesterday---which I have yet to see, and which isn't yet available on the military commissions' website. The gist:
A military judge ruled Thursday that one of the five defendants being tried at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for their alleged roles in the Sept.
Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
The Washington Post reports of a new ruling from the military judge yesterday---which I have yet to see, and which isn't yet available on the military commissions' website. The gist:
A military judge ruled Thursday that one of the five defendants being tried at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for their alleged roles in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks be severed from the proceeding. The decision delivers another in a series of delays to the government’s effort to prosecute Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni described as a key figure in the plot who acted as a liaison between the hijackers and al-Qaeda’s leadership in Afghanistan. But the order could accelerate pre-trial proceedings for the four others, including the self-proclaimed mastermind of the attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Army Col. James L. Pohl said the court needs to resolve whether Binalshibh has the mental capacity to participate in a trial and whether he needs another lawyer because of a potential conflict of interest after the FBI questioned members of his defense team.
Wells C. Bennett was Managing Editor of Lawfare and a Fellow in National Security Law at the Brookings Institution. Before coming to Brookings, he was an Associate at Arnold & Porter LLP.
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