Three of five alleged plotters in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks demanded on Thursday to be sentenced to death at a US military hearing, saying they had long sought martyrdom.
“This is what I want, I’m looking to be a martyr for long time,” Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, a Kuwaiti of Pakistani origin who is the alleged mastermind of the attacks, told the hearing at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, southern Cuba.
His words were echoed by two other defendants, Wallid bin Attash and Ramzi Binalshibh, who, like Sheikh Mohammed, also sought to dismiss their legal teams to conduct their own defense.
“I’ve been seeking martyrdom for five years. I tried to get a visa for 9/11, but I could not,” said Binalshibh, who was a member of the German-based Hamburg cell of al-Qaeda, which planned and then carried out the attacks.
A native of Yemen, Binalshibh shared a Hamburg apartment with Mohammed Atta, a key leader of the 19 hijackers who took over four planes on the day to use as weapons, but unlike Atta and the others he was unable to get a US visa.
“I understand that I will be killed for the sake of God, but I don’t understand that I’m guilty. I refuse that I am guilty. And I know that if I am killed, I will be killed in the sake of God,” said Binalshibh, 36.
“You killed my brother who was younger than me during the war, and this is my wish to be in your hands,” Attash, a Saudi of Yemeni origin, also told the military hearing presided over by judge Colonel Ralph Kohlmann.
Sheikh Mohammed, 43, has claimed to have been behind not just the Sept. 11 attacks but also some 30 operations against the West in the past decade, according to transcripts of his interrogation released by the Pentagon.
His appearance on Thursday was the first time he had been seen in public since his capture in Pakistan on March 1, 2003.
He, Attash and Binalshibh, along with Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Mustapha al-Hawsawi, have been charged over the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon which killed some 3,000 people.
They have been charged with conspiracy, murder, attacking civilians, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property, terrorism and material support for terrorism.
Ali, born in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, broke ranks by not demanding to be sentenced to death, but he did announce his intention to defend himself, saying the lawyers were “here for decoration.”
“I’m here after five years of torture,” said the 30-year-old Ali, who is Sheikh Mohammed’s nephew. “There is no justice from the beginning, from the day I was arrested until now. If there is no justice, anything can happen.”
Kohlmann sought to convince the defendants not to represent themselves, saying it was “not a good idea” to dismiss their lawyers.
Several defense lawyers tried to intervene, saying they had only recently been appointed and had not yet had time to build up the trust of their clients.
But Sheikh Mohammed replied firmly in English: “I know they are very qualified, they are the best team they told me. But the problem is their president, George Bush.”
All the suspects were arrested between 2002 and 2003 and transferred to the controversial base on Cuba in 2006, allegedly after spending years in secret CIA prisons.
Kohlmann agreed Sheikh Mohammed and Attash could conduct their own defenses, but would not rule immediately on Binalshibh after his lawyers argued he had some mental health troubles.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
RSS