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Suspected al-Qaeda plotter mocks court proceedings

An Ethiopian accused of plotting with al-Qaeda mocked his Guantanamo tribunal on Thursday, saying prosecutors had incorrect information despite "four years of torture."

"You have the wrong person in the seat," said the terror suspect, who US military authorities identify as Binyam Muhammad.

"You have to go back and find out who this person is you're talking about," Muhammad said in a British accent, indicating his last name was spelled differently to the one listed on his charge sheet.

As the presiding officer tried to move the pre-trial hearing forward, Muhammad ridiculed the proceedings with sarcasm and rhetorical questions.

"You don't even have the right information on me after four years of torture," he said.

Muhammad's defense lawyers allege his trial on conspiracy charges is based on statements extracted through torture during interrogations in Morocco before he was transferred to the US prison at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in September 2004.

Military prosecutors charge that Muhammad underwent training at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and had instructions to set off explosions in apartment buildings and gas stations in the US.

The presiding officer, Colonel Ralph Kohlmann, listened stoically to Muhammad's rambling denunciations and repeatedly asked him who he wanted to serve as his defense counsel in the trial.

Muhammad, 27, a lanky man with a bushy black beard and a black skull cap, said he wanted to speak for himself and did not want a US lawyer as required by the rules of the special tribunals.

"I have a problem trusting Americans because I've been in the custody of Americans for four years, directly and indirectly," said Muhammad, who moved with his family to London when he was a teenager.

The presiding officer explained that the rules denied detainees the right to represent themselves and that only US citizens could serve as his lawyers.

Saying he did not recognize the proceedings as legitimate, Muhammad declared the military commission was an attempt to "con" the world that the trials were fair and held up a handwritten sign in black ink reading: "con-mission."

Kohlmann advised Muhammad's lawyers that the defendant's loose-fitting orange shirt and baggy orange trousers resembled prison garb and that this might undermine their client's interest in asserting his innocence.

One of his lawyers, Major Yvonne Bradley, told the tribunal that Muhammad had also asked that he be shackled while at the hearing to convey an accurate picture of his detention but that his request was declined.

After several hours, the presiding officer asked Muhammad to enter a plea and the defendant refused, pushing away a microphone on his table. The tribunal chief concluded the defendant's plea was "not guilty."

Muhammad was arrested in April 2002 in Karachi by Pakistani authorities as he tried to return to London using a forged passport, according to his charge sheet.

Prosecutors say he was an accomplice of Jose Padilla, a US citizen who allegedly planned attacks on civilians and whose legal objections to his detention by military authorities have gained widespread media attention in the US.

US President George W. Bush's administration has come under sharp international criticism for the Guantanamo camp and the special commissions set up to try inmates held at the prison.

Of some 490 detainees from dozens of countries, only 10 have been formally charged by the tribunals in the more than four years since the camp opened after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

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