Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, pressured other co-defendants to reject their court appointed lawyers, defence attorneys charged. The lawyers also said judge and court did not take adequate steps to prevent the suspected co-conspirators from communicating with each other just before and during their trial that began Thursday on this US naval installation.
Allowing Mohammed, once believed to be al-Qaeda's third ranking leader, to speak with and pressure the other detainees into dismissing legal representation further compromises the ability to conduct a fair trial, lawyers said.
"It was clear to me that was the case," said Major Jon Jackson, who is representing Mustafa Ahmad Adam al-Hawsawi.
Jackson said Mohammed and and two other defendants, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Walid Muhammed bin Attash, intimidated his client into requesting before Judge Ralph Kohlmann that his attorneys be dropped and be allowed to represent himself.
Kohlmann rejected al-Hawsawi's demand, saying he did not believe the accused adequately understood the charges against him. He did not rule out doing so in the future, however. Kohlmann also refused to allow bin al-Shibh to unload his attorneys after his military lawyer, Commander Suzanne Lachelier, said her client was taking medication for mental treatment and that his judgment was impaired.
Kohlmann granted wishes by Mohammed, al-Attash and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali to represent themselves, decisions that left their attorneys livid because they had not been allowed to spend adequate time with their clients.
"It was not justice," Jackson said. "It was ridiculous."
The chief Pentagon prosecutor, Lawrence Morris, also expressed concerns about the dismissal of legal representation but said the overall process remains fair.
He called the military commissions an "orderly fair, legal system remarkably similar to other trials in the United States. When asked if he had concerns about the defendants conversing before the trial, Morris said:
"I believe it was the first time those individuals have had to speak to each other" since they were arrested five or six years ago, he said.
