WASHINGTON: A US military judge has ruled that confessions made by alleged 9/11 attacks mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to FBI agents cannot be used against him at trial, dealing a significant setback to the prosecution in one of the longest-running terrorism cases in US history.
The ruling by Lt Col Michael Schrama came on Friday, just days after he set June 5, 2028, as the trial date for Mohammed and three other accused plotters at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Schrama ruled that Mohammed’s statements to FBI agents in 2007 were not made voluntarily. According to the ruling, prosecutors failed to establish that the statements were given freely after Mohammed had spent years in CIA custody and had been subjected to coercive interrogation techniques.
Mohammed, widely known as “KSM”, was captured in March 2003. He was subsequently held in a network of secret CIA detention before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. During his CIA detention, he was subjected to harsh interrogation methods, including waterboarding. Prosecutors had already agreed that statements obtained during those interrogations could not be used against him. Defence lawyers had argued that years of isolation, coercion and abuse had affected his ability to make voluntary statements.
The case has been delayed for more than two decades by disputes over evidence, interrogation practices and other pre-trial issues. The newly scheduled 2028 trial would come nearly 27 years after the attacks.
The prosecution has said it will review the ruling before deciding whether to appeal, meaning the long-delayed case could face another legal hurdle before reaching trial.