The chief judge for the U.S. war crimes tribunal at the naval detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, set a June 5 court date for the self-professed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and four other suspected co-conspirators.
Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, who presided over the earlier trial of Australian David Hicks, notified the military defense attorneys by e-mail Wednesday evening he would personally handle the case. The June 5 date precedes a high-profile case before the U.S. Supreme Court that would have a major impact on the tribunal proceedings. The court is set to review Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah v. U.S, weigh a challenge to Gates v. Bismullah all while the Pentagon plans to vet Bismullah through another Combatant Status Review Tribunal to determine his eligibility to face the war crimes tribunal.
The Supreme Court packages consider the expansion of the rights of civilian courts to review military legal proceeds from the Guantanamo Bay cases. It is peculiar that the U.S. government announced the date of the KSM trial following a scheduling decision from the Supreme Court.
KSM and the other five co-conspirators have so far not been afforded legal counsel versed in death penalty cases, a penalty the U.S. government seeks for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts. Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union slated to defend the high-profile suspects slammed the Pentagon for “brazenly disregarding the rights of the accused without any consideration for due process.”
“This approach will only add to the illegitimacy of the military commissions, which … make a mockery of our Constitution and American values,” lawyer said.
