Dhe terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 will be nearly 21 years old, but the memories and pain are still alive for many Americans. Quite a few would like to see the perpetrators who are still alive sentenced to death. But after years of delays, there is now movement in the case. The five suspects, who are being held in the military prison at Guantanamo, Cuba, could plead guilty, according to new reports. Earlier this week, her attorneys filed a list of terms for such a deal.
An agreement could save the suspected terrorists their lives. According to American media reports, they could confess to the crimes in exchange for life imprisonment. The death penalty would then be waived for all five. According to the American authorities, the presumably 57-year-old Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one of the masterminds behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
With him four other men are accused of having supported the terrorists in different ways. Among them is Ramzi bin al-Shib, who is said to have organized the sleeper cell in Hamburg. He is also said to have researched flight schools for the terrorists who ended up hijacking four planes and directing them into the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington. Another plane, thanks to passenger intervention, was diverted and crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attacks killed 2,976 victims and 19 terrorists.
The opening of the proceedings was delayed
The alleged accomplices have now been in Guantanamo for more than fifteen years without being convicted. The opening of a procedure was recently delayed by the pandemic, but before that by logistical and legal problems. The accused accuse the American authorities of torturing them in secret CIA prisons in Pakistan in 2002 and 2003 in order to obtain their information.
Mohammed alone is said to have been subjected to the torture method “waterboarding” 183 times. In 2007, the suspects were said to have been tortured in Guantánamo. When details about the torture prisons became public, there were national and international protests – and the American government’s breaches of the law led to delays in law enforcement.
To this day, the prosecution and the defense are still arguing about which evidence may be admitted at all if it was obtained in part through torture. It is also disputed whether individual suspects could receive shorter prison sentences. Finally, one of the accused’s lawyers withdrew, which could mean further delays of several months. Formally, the hearing is to take place before a military court, which was actually supposed to start a year ago with the jury selection.
38 prisoners left at Guantánamo
Since 2002, 708 people have been held at Guantánamo, today there are 38 prisoners. Most inmates are imprisoned for war crimes or terrorism, and Afghans make up the largest group of those ever held here, accounting for around 30 percent. George W. Bush’s administration at the time described the prisoners as “unlawful combatants” – this means that as “lawless combatants” they were denied the rights of prisoners or prisoners of war.
Over the past two decades there have been scandals about inhuman prison conditions, torture and suicides. Both federal courts and the Supreme Court have found that the practice at Guantánamo is largely unlawful. Democratic President Obama wanted to close the detention center, but his successor Trump reversed the process and promised to keep “bad people” there.
At the beginning of the week, the White House said it would not take a position on a possible deal with those accused of terrorism. President Joe Biden remains committed to the goal of “responsibly” reducing the number of prisoners at Guantánamo. Many Democrats actually hoped that Biden would close the contaminated site.
Now there is another solution. According to American media, those responsible for 9/11 would prefer to remain in Guantánamo and serve out their sentences there. If they were transferred to the high-security federal prison in Florence, Colorado, they would no longer be able to eat and pray together, the New York Times reported.
In Florence, federal inmates are held in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day. Under Trump, there have already been negotiations about guilty pleas, in which the prisoners demanded to be able to stay in Cuba. There is now speculation as to whether Guantánamo could be turned into a permanent penitentiary for the alleged terrorists after a deal was made with them.
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