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US to televise Gitmo trials
Foreign Desk Report
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE—The U.S. military will televise the
Guantanamo trial of accused September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed and five other suspects so relatives of those killed in the
attacks can watch on the U.S. mainland.
“We’re going to broadcast in real time to several locations that will be
available just to victim families,” Army Col. Lawrence Morris, chief
prosecutor for the controversial war crimes court, said at the naval
base recently.
In February, military prosecutors charged Mohammed and five other
captives with murder and conspiracy and asked that they be executed if
convicted of plotting to crash hijacked planes into New York’s World
Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.
No trial date has been set but they are the first Guantanamo prisoners
charged with direct involvement in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000
people.
Morris said several of the victims’ relatives asked to watch the trials
at the detention center set up in Guantanamo Bay naval base to try
foreign terrorism suspects. The base sits on a dusty patch of the island
of Cuba and does not have many flights, beds or courtroom seats to
accommodate spectators.
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