9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed faces New York trial (Second Lead)

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sep 11, 2001, terror attacks, and four other men accused in the plot will be prosecuted in a civilian court in New York City, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday.

All the five - Mohammed, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi - will be transferred from Guantanamo Bay to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York - a short distance from the World Trade Centre towers that were destroyed in the 9/11 attacks.

"After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for the attacks of September 11th will finally face justice," Holder said. He said he expected prosecutors to seek death penalty.

Holder also announced that five other detainees held at the US military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be sent to military commissions for trial. They were identified as Omar Khadr, Mohammed Kamin, Ibrahim al Qosi, Noor Uthman Muhammed and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Al-Nashiri is an accused mastermind of the deadly 2000 bombing of the USS Cole; Khadr is a Canadian charged with the 2002 murder of a US military officer in Afghanistan. Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured in July 2002.

Mohammed, a person of Pakistani origin born in Kenya, "will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice", President Obama said Friday in Japan, according to CNN.

"The American people insist on it, and my administration will insist on it," Obama told reporters at a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

Mohammed is the confessed organiser of the Sep 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon. But his confession could be called into question during trial, analysts said.

A 2005 Justice Department memo - released by the Obama administration - revealed he had been waterboarded 183 times in March 2003. Obama has called the technique, which simulates drowning, torture.

The alleged 9/11 conspirators are among 215 men held by the US military at the Guantanamo prison camp. The Obama administration has vowed to close the detention facility but acknowledges it is unlikely to happen by its self-imposed Jan 22, 2010, deadline.

Last updated on Nov 13^th, 2009 at 23:39 pm IST--IANS