FORT MEADE, Md. - A fifth day of pretrial hearings in the case against five men accused of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks paused Friday when the military judge refused to proceed until learning more about one suspect’s toothache.
The judge, Army Col. James Pohl, halted proceedings for an hour Friday morning at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, because he wasn’t sure why Ammar al Baluchi wasn’t in court. The judge sent a military officer back to al Baluchi’s cell at a distant prison camp to ask whether he waived his attendance because of the toothache or for some other reason.
The adjournment was the latest delay in legal proceedings that are moving at a snail’s pace. Entire weeks of pretrial hearings have beenlost because of weather or technical problems, while other logistical glitches, along with related legal issues, have slowed days of testimony.
Al Baluchi, who’s accused of helping finance the attacks, and his uncle, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, are among five defendants facing trial for organizing the hijacking of passenger airplanes that killed almost 3,000 people when they were crashed into the World Trade Center in Manhattan, the Pentagon in Virginia, and in a field in Pennsylvania.
The five may face the death penalty if convicted before a military tribunal. They are charged with conspiring to finance, train and direct the 19 hijackers who seized the four planes, as well as terrorism, hijacking aircraft, conspiracy, murder in violation of the laws of war and attacking civilians. A trial is at least a year away.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 06/22/2013