‘Psychotic’ 9/11 defendant unfit to stand trial, Guantanamo Bay judge rules

A Guantanamo Bay judge has ruled that a defendant is unfit to stand trial (Alex Brandon/AP)

A military judge at Guantanamo Bay has ruled that a 9/11 defendant is unfit to stand trial after a medical panel found that abuse in CIA custody years earlier had rendered him psychotic.

Guantanamo military commission spokesman Ronald Flesvig confirmed the ruling by Judge Colonel Matthew McCall which means Ramzi bin al-Shibh will not be tried together with his four 9/11 co-defendants, whose case will proceed without him.

Judge McCall made the ruling on Thursday night. A notice on the military commission’s website on Friday said his written decision was under security review and unavailable.

Al-Shibh, from Yemen, is accused of organising one cell of the 19 hijackers who carried out the September 11 2001 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

A military medical panel last month diagnosed him as having post-traumatic stress disorder with secondary psychosis, and linked it to his torture and solitary confinement during four years in CIA custody after his 2002 arrest.

Al-Shibh has complained for years since his transfer to the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that his guards were attacking him, including by invisible rays, so as to deprive him of sleep and cause him pain.

Defence attorney David Bruck argued at a hearing of the military court on Tuesday for Judge McCall to accept the medical panel’s finding that Al-Shibh’s mental issues were too severe for him to meaningfully take part in his defence.

Mr Bruck pointed to what he said was al-Shibh’s solitary confinement over four years in detention at CIA black sites, and torture that included his being forced to stand sleepless for as long as three days at a time, naked except for a nappy and doused with cold water in air-conditioned rooms, for the man’s lasting belief that his American guards were still conspiring to deprive him of sleep.

Mr Bruck indicated that Al-Shibh would be expected to remain in custody if found incompetent to stand trial.