Americas

Home page

Americas

U.S. military prosecutors file fresh charges against 9/11 suspects

31 May 2011 22:35 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The U.S. military commissions prosecutors have filed new charges against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, and four alleged co-conspirators detained at Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon said Tuesday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The charges allege that the five accused were responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks on New York, Washington D.C. and Shanksville, Pa. that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, the Pentagon said in a statement.

There are eight charges common to all five of the accused: conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, hijacking aircraft, and terrorism.

All five defendants had been charged in military tribunals during President George W. Bush’s administration, but the Obama administration dropped these charges and tried to move the trials into the federal civilian court.

Obama abandoned that effort last month, citing opposition from congressional Republicans. Republican-controlled House had voted several times to bar or restrict the administration from using any federal funds to transfer detainees at Guantanamo Bay to U.S. civilian courts for trial.