9/11 charges to be challenged

Military lawyers for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the confessed mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and four alleged co-conspirators are seeking to have the charges dismissed, it has emerged.

A motion filed last week before a US war-crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, argues that the charges have been tainted by unlawful influence from a Pentagon official.

The lawyers are challenging the involvement of the tribunals’ legal adviser, Air Force Brig Gen Thomas Hartmann, who was removed from another case for aligning himself too closely with prosecutors.

The defendants will appear at Guantanamo on June 5 on charges including conspiracy, hijacking an aircraft and murder.