The Obama administration on Friday set the stage for what could be the most high-profile trial in US history when it said it was seeking the death penalty in a New York court for Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and four accomplices accused of being behind the September 11 attacks.
Announcing the move, and a related prosecution of five men allegedly involved in a 2000 attack on the USS Cole, Eric Holder, US attorney-general, said it was the most difficult decision he had made in office.
“After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for the attacks of September the 11th will finally face justice,” he said. “They will be brought to New York to answer for their alleged crimes in a courthouse just blocks from where the twin towers once stood.”
”We’re talking about what literally is the crime of the century,” Mr Holder told PBS’s The Newshour. He added that the five men could get a fair trial in New York but that it was not going to be “an easy thing”.
In Tokyo, US president Barack Obama said: “I am absolutely convinced that Khaled Sheikh Mohammed will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice.
“The American people will insist on it and my administration will insist on it.”
The decision was attacked by Republicans, who said the September 11 plotters were war criminals and that their entry into the US would put Americans at risk.
But Mr Holder said he was confident that a conviction would be reached, in spite of the fact that Mr Mohammed was subjected to the controversial waterboarding form of interrogation, a method that puts the the detainee in fear of drowning.
“This will be the greatest trial in the history of the US,” said Ken Gude at the Centre for American Progress, a Washington-based thinktank. “Three thousand counts of murder – no other case has ever rivalled this.”
The US said that Mr Mohammed and the other detainees facing trial in New York would only be transferred to the US after a series of legal requirements were met, including a 45-day notice and a report to Congress.
Mr Holder spoke to Michael Bloomberg, the New York mayor, and David Paterson, the state governor, about the security implications of holding the trial in the city.
Ray Kelly, city police commissioner, said he believed the choice of New York was entirely appropriate.
“In my judgment, they are responsible for the deaths of 3,000 people right here in Manhattan,” he said of the defendants. “And I think they should be tried in the venue where they committed the crime. That’s always been our standard in the criminal justice system in this country.”
But others objected to the plan.
Peter King a congressman on the homeland security committee who represents New York’s neighbouring Long Island district, condemned holding the trial in the city. He told the Politico website President Obama was “caving into political correctness and the left wing base of his political party.” Lower Manhattan, where the case is likely to be heard could turn into a “circus,” he said.
“I am really disgusted by it,” he told Politico. “To me, it’s truly an insult to the memory of those killed on 9/11.”
And relatives of 9/11 victims told the NY1 television station they were concerned about the decision.
“I don’t think it’s a bad thing for New Yorkers or America to remember what happened,” said Frank Siller, whose firefighter brother died in the attacks. “But I think it’s a bad thing to take it out of where it is, in Gitmo, they should be tried by a military court and whatever the outcome is, and they should be sentenced accordingly.”
