9/11 'mastermind' trial gets underway

The al-Qaida leader accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks and four co-conspirators faced a military judge today in their first appearance before a war-crimes tribunal.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, said to be the organisation’s No 3, and the others sat at defence tables alongside their lawyers before the judge, Marine Colonel Ralph Kohlmann.

All five wore cream-coloured clothing and turbans, in contrast to the dishevelled hair and T-shirt Mohammed wore when he was captured in Pakistan in 2003.

Mohammed was later held in CIA custody at secret sites and transferred to the US Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2006.

Journalists were allowed to see the proceedings on closed-circuit TV in a nearby room. Other observers including Fang A. Wong, a senior member of the American Legion, the US veterans’ association, filed into the tightly guarded courthouse.

“I’m from the New York area, and I have been waiting for this for a long time,” Mr Wong said as he waited to be searched by soldiers before entering the court complex.

The trial of the five detainees, coming seven years after the terror attacks, begins the highest-profile test yet of the controversial tribunal system, which is being challenged before the US Supreme Court.

All five face the death penalty if convicted of war crimes including murder, conspiracy, attacking civilians and terrorism.