Five 9/11 accused disrupt terror-linked military hearing

Havana, May 6 (ANI): Terror suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has boasted of masterminding the 9/11 attacks, and four other co-defendants leafed through The Economist magazine as military court proceedings against them continued on charges of terrorism and murder.

All five men refused to participate in the hearing. They knelt down in prayer, ignored the judge and did not listen to Arabic translations as they confronted nearly 3,000 counts of murder.

According to the Fox News, their refusal to participate in the hearing, slowed down trial to a crawl.

It took more than eight hours for the judge at the U.S. military base in Cuba to ask the men to enter pleas to 2,976 counts of murder and terrorism in the 2001 attacks.

The lawyers of the accused spent hours questioning the judge about his qualifications to hear the case and said that their clients were being mistreated at the hearing.

The behaviour of the defendants outraged the families of the 9/11 attack who were watching the proceeding on closed-circuit video feeds around the United States at East Coast military bases.

The Obama administration had renewed plans to carry out proceedings against the men at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay after a bid to try the men in New York City blocks from the trade center site faced political opposition.

Human rights groups and defense lawyers said that the secrecy of Guantanamo and the military commissions, or tribunals, would make it impossible to defend them. (ANI)