The pre-trial hearing is the first time the five detainees have appeared in court since February 2020. Along with Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed Adam are also charged. to the Hawsawi in the capital case. If convicted, all five could face the death penalty.
The case has faced a number of challenges since and before the detainees were prosecuted at Guantanamo in 2012 during the Obama administration. The last 18-month hiatus was caused by changes in the pandemic and Covid-19 staff.
Mohammed and the other four detainees were dressed in appropriate cultural attire provided by their lawyers. Muhammad appeared in court in a Pashtun-style hat, with a white cap covering his head and a navy blue handkerchief braided and wrapped around his head and shoulders. His reddish orange henna-dyed beard was visible.
Three of the men wore headscarves and one, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, named by his lawyers as Ammar al Baluchi, wore a gray Sindhi, a traditional hat from his native Pakistani province. Ali is the nephew of Muhammad.
Impact Covid-19
The five detainees were escorted to the courtroom by prison guards wearing masks, face shields and blue rubber gloves. Judge Colonel Matthew N. McCall asked all attendees in the courtroom to keep the masks during the hearing. As the five detainees entered the courtroom with masks on, four of them took off their masks during the hearing.
The detainees, sitting at the edge of the tables lined up on the left side of the courtroom, chatted with each other for the two and a half hours they were in court, both during the hearing and during the two recesses in the courtroom.
Mohammed, who was closer to the judge by order of detainees, was seen with his arm hanging from the back of the chair talking to Bin ‘Attash, who sat behind him in the order in which they were tried in the courtroom. . During the first recess of the room, Mohammed left the room accompanied by guards. He waved two journalists out of the gallery as he left.
Ali Connell’s attorney, James Connell, said his client was talking to the other detainees and his legal team because he is happy to be out of jail.
“The man has been locked up whenever everyone has been locked up, and to see people he doesn’t have, his legal team that he hasn’t seen in a long time is a cause for pleasure,” Connell said. . “He’s happy to be back in court, he’s happy to see the case move forward and he’s happy to see his legal team after a long Covid-related isolation.”
Family members of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, observers and journalists watched the proceedings of the room from behind soundproof glass with a delay of 40 seconds to ensure that the classified material was not made public by accident. .
A new judge
McCall, an Air Force judge, presided over his first face-to-face hearing of the case. Whether or not McCall should preside over the case has been an ongoing issue and is the topic of the first week’s hearings.
Prosecutors, who represented the U.S. government, initially protested McCall’s appointment because he did not have two years of experience as a military judge, a requirement to serve as a judge on a military commission.
McCall retired and was later reappointed after gaining the appropriate experience to chair the case.
The first week of hearings is expected to address the question of whether the prosecution or defense teams have any objection to McCall presiding over the case. Trials and defense teams began questioning McCall today, but the hearing was interrupted when a military appeals court ruling was handed down on the same issue being discussed.
The appeals court ruling said McCall could preside, but the ruling also says the decisions McCall made while serving as a judge in the case before he gained two years of experience are no longer valid.
Since the five detainees were tried in Guantánamo Bay in 2012, four judges have presided over the face-to-face hearings of the case.
On Wednesday, the judge’s interrogations by defense lawyers and prosecutors will continue.