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October 15, 2012

Torture in U.S. Custody to Be Raised at Gitmo Hearing for 9/11 Suspects 
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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four suspected co-conspirators will appear
today in a Guantánamo Bay military courtroom for a pre-trial hearing in
their tribunals for plotting the 9/11 attacks. All five of the men were
once held in secret CIA prisons before being sent to Guantánamo in
2006. Ahead of today's hearing, the military prosecutor and the military
attorney in the case sparred over the admissibility of the suspects'
alleged torture while in U.S. custody.

Mark Martins, Prosecutor: "I have said that no statement under the
military commission's act obtained by torture or cruel, inhumane or
degrading treatment or coercion is admissible. That's true. That refers
to the prosecution's case against an accused. It can't be admitted. That
is not to imply that there can be no addressing by the military
commission of evidence of mistreatment. I've never said that and that's
not what the military commission's act reads."

Capt. Jason Wright, Defense Attorney: "From a legal perspective, it's
unconscionable that somehow the government would maintain that
three-and-half years or four-and-half years of someone's life can't be
discussed. And not just those years where they may not have been doing
anything of substance but those years where our government tortured
them."

 

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