In the pre-dawn hours of March 1, 2003, the United States scored its most exciting victory yet against the plotters of the 9/11 attacks: the capture of a bedraggled Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, kidnapped by intelligence agents from a hideout in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
The worldwide search for al-Qaeda’s No. 3 leader took 18 months. But the US attempt to bring him to justice, in a legal sense, has taken much, much longer. Critics say it has become one of the biggest failures in the war on terror.
As the 21st anniversary of Sunday’s terror attacks approaches, Mohammed and four other men accused of 9/11-related crimes are still in a US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, their planned trials before a court. endlessly postponed military.
The latest setback came last month when pre-trial hearings scheduled for early fall were cancelled. The delay was one more in a series of disappointments for the relatives of the almost 3,000 victims of the attack. They have long hoped that a trial would bring closure and perhaps resolve unanswered questions.
“Now, I’m not sure what’s going to happen,” said Gordon Haberman, whose 25-year-old daughter, Andrea, died after a hijacked plane crashed into the World Trade Centerone floor above his office.
He has traveled to Guantánamo four times from his home in West Bend, Wisconsin, to watch the legal proceedings in person, only to leave in frustration.
“It’s important to me that the United States finally gets to the truth about what happened, how it was done,” Haberman said. “I personally want to see this go to trial.”
If found guilty at trial, Mohammed could face the death penalty.
Asked about the case, James Connell, a lawyer for one of Mohammed’s co-defendants, one accused of transferring money to the 9/11 attackers, confirmed reports that both sides are still “trying to come to a pre-deal.” trial” that could still avoid a trial. and result in shorter but still longer sentences.
David Kelley, a former federal attorney in New York who co-chaired the Justice Department’s national investigation into the attacks, called the delays and failure to prosecute “a terrible tragedy for the families of the victims.”
He called the attempt to put Muhammad on trial before a military court, rather than the regular US court system, “a tremendous failure” that was “as offensive to our Constitution as it is to our rule of law.”
[Con información de The Associated Press]
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