5 at Gitmo to Face Death Penalty

[unhappycamper]

5 at Gitmo to Face Death Penalty
May 14, 2008
Miami Herald

MIAMI - A Pentagon official has formally approved death penalty charges against reputed 9-11 architect Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other men for allegedly conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks, according to their charge sheet obtained by The Miami Herald.

Military Commissions officials e-mailed the approved charge sheets to defense lawyers in Washington, D.C., after the close of business May 12 - confirming plans for the first war court prosecution seeking execution as the ultimate penalty.

That means that, absent defense requests for delay, the men could make their first appearance at the Guantanamo war court in June.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, declined to release the charges publicly, or discuss them. ''When we have something to announce, we will,'' he said in an e-mail May 14.

But according to the document obtained by The Herald, a Bush appointee named Susan Crawford approved the charges on May 9, authorizing a common, complex capital trial for the five men. She deleted from the charge sheet the prosecution of a Saudi captive at Guantanamo, Mohammed al-Qahtani, who had been initially included in the group.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/5-at-gitmo-to-face-death-penalty.html