Wednesday, July 2, 2008
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A military judge will hold separate hearings for five men accused in the September 11 terrorist attacks to determine if they were intimidated into asking to represent themselves.
Defense lawyers say Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, the judge in the case, scheduled individual appearances for the detainees on July 9 and 10 in response to claims that one of the defendants may have influenced the others to join him in rejecting lawyers.
Last month, all five detainees made their first appearance together before Kohlmann and told him that they wished to represent themselves on charges stemming from the September 11 attacks.
At the June 5 hearing, Kohlmann agreed to let Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali represent themselves. He reserved judgment on Mustafa al-Hawsawi and Ramzi bin al-Shibh.
Immediately after the hearing, al-Hawsawi's lawyer said that Mohammed had intimidated his client into asking to represent himself.
"It was clear that Mr. Mohammed was attempting to intimidate Mr. al-Hawsawi into not accepting me as counsel," said Army Maj. Jon Jackson, whose client is accused of helping finance the attacks.
Jackson noted that Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the plot, had exchanged words with his co-defendants during the hours-long hearing, where he said he wanted a death sentence so he could become a martyr.
"Al-Hawsawi never said he wanted to plead guilty or martyr himself," Jackson told CNN.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, bin al-Shibh's attorney, said her client may not be fit to decide on his representation because he is being medicated.
Lachelier said the information she has received limited information about bin al-Shibh's medical condition, including a list of drugs but no information about why the drugs were prescribed.
According to Lachelier, Kohlmann has ordered a medical report on bin al-Shibh, who is accused of coordinating the attacks, by August 8 and a hearing on his mental status on August 15.
"I think that's a reasonable reading of the rules," she said, adding that it ignores a separate issue of whether bin al-Shibh is competent to act as his own lawyer.
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During the June hearing, bin al-Shibh was the only defendant who was shackled.
"I have been seeking martyrdom for five years," he said. "I tried for 9/11 to get a visa, and I could not."
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