Global General

Special

Newsmaker

Asia Pacific

America

Middle East

Europe

Africa

9/11 suspects ask to make 'confessions'

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-09 07:46

Five men charged with plotting the Sept 11 attacks told a military judge yesterday that they want to immediately confess at their war-crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay.

In a letter the judge read aloud in court, the five defendants - who could be executed if convicted - said they "request an immediate hearing session to announce our confessions."

The letter implies they want to plead guilty, but does not specify whether they will admit to any specific charges. It also says they wish to drop all previous defense motions.

The judge, Army Colonel Stephen Henley, asked Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants if they were prepared to enter a plea. So far, Mohammed and three others said they agreed with the letter; the fifth remained to be questioned by the judge.

Mohammed, who has already told interrogators he was the mastermind of the Sept 11 attacks, also told the judge yesterday that he had no faith in him, his Pentagon-appointed lawyers or President George W. Bush.

Sporting a chest-length gray beard, Mohammed said in English: "I don't trust you."

The pretrial hearings this week could be the last court appearance for the high-profile detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

The first US war crimes trials since World War II are teetering on the edge of extinction. President-elect Barack Obama opposes the military commissions - as the Guantanamo trials are called - and has pledged to close the detention center holding some 250 men soon after taking office next month.

Agencies

(China Daily 12/09/2008 page11)