Death penalty sought for 9/11 suspects
Updated on 13 November 2009
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says he plans to seek the death penalty against self-proclaimed September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees if convicted in federal criminal court in New York
The accused mastermind of the September 11 attacks and four other top terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay will be sent to New York to be tried in a criminal court.
Bringing such notorious suspects to US soil is a key step in President Barack Obama's plan to close the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba which was set up in 2002.
Speaking in Tokyo during a trip through Asia, the President said:
"I am absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice. The American people will insist on it. My administration will insist on it"
As one of his first acts after taking office in January, Obama pledged that by January 22 next year, he would close the camp, which had become a symbol of harsh treatment of detainees.
That is now unlikely.
Obama's top lawyer, Gregory Craig, who was charged with leading the White House effort to close Guantanamo, announced his resignation today following reports of dissatisfaction within the administration over his management of the Guantanamo policy.
In the meantime, it's thought trials in New York may provoke strong public reaction, despite the city having experience of such proceedings.
Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind Muslim cleric, was convicted in 1995 for conspiring to blow up New York City landmarks after a heavily guarded trial in a Lower Manhattan court not far from the World Trade Center site.
The four other September 11 suspects being held at Guantanamo are Walid bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi and as things stand at the moment it's unclear where they will be held whilst awaiting trial.
In U.S. custody, Mohammed was subjected to "waterboarding" 183 times - that's when drowning is simulated by pouring water over someone's face while they are restrained.
Human rights groups say waterboarding is torture, and the use of that interrogation method could hurt prosecutors' case.
Among the barriers to closing Guantanamo is deep resistance among U.S. allies to take detainees who have been cleared of connections to terrorism.
Some of Obama's political opponents in the United States do not want the trials held on U.S. soil.
Some Republicans argue Guantanamo already has the facilities to try and imprison the terrorism suspects.
They also have said communities that would house the prisoners in the United States could become targets for attacks.
But the Obama administration and fellow Democrats counter that the U.S. courts and prisons have handled scores of terrorism suspects previously and they must close Guantanamo because it has tarnished the United States' reputation abroad.
