Washington's travesty of justice

In the past, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad has taken credit for his key role in the terrorist atrocity of the attacks of September 11, which killed almost 3,000 innocent people in America. Therefore his trial should have been straightforward, but after 10 years of preparation, the trial of Mohammad and four co-defendants has started in disastrous chaos. The bizarre and secretive military commission holding the trial will not be the necessary example of transparent justice that the world expects from the United States.

The defendants refused to cooperate, and defence lawyers argued they were not qualified to defend their clients; translators interrupted lawyers to insist they be quiet; defendants refused to answer any questions from the judge or even acknowledge they'd been asked. Others took the opportunity of the hearing to publicly air their allegations of ill-treatment.

In 2008, all five defendants declared that they would plead guilty, but they have now deliberately deferred entering pleas in order to stretch out the trial. The trial is being held under a military commission, invented under former president George W. Bush, which was suspended but then restarted under President Barack Obama. Although the Obama administration did consider holding these trials in normal civil courts in Manhattan, it eventually decided to continue with military commissions in order to avoid having to air evidence of torture and mistreatment in the notorious Guantanamo prison.

In a travesty of justice, the defendants' lawyers are not allowed to talk with their clients about anything that the American military decides is classified. This includes anything about how the prisoners have been treated, like Mohammad's 132 reported sessions of being water-boarded. It is a pity that the United States has not been able to rely on its normal justice system to try these evil criminals in a well-tested and transparent system.