A federal judge has barred testimony from the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks at the New York trial of Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law.
At a hearing Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected a request by defense lawyers. They’d sought to call Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as a witness at the terrorism trial of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith.
Mohammed is detained at Guantanamo Bay. He had said in a statement in response to questions from Abu Ghaith’s defense lawyers that he wouldn’t testify.
Abu Ghaith has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill Americans. His trial is set to continue on Wednesday.
(AP)
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The defendant’s lawyer will want to argue that the person who is refusing to testify is the real criminal, and the defendant had nothing to do with planning or carrying out terrorist acts. The defendant was the public relations persons for Al Queda but claims he had nothing to do with planning operations (as in “don’t blame me, I just wrote the press release”). Assuming he is willing to testify, he might be able to convince a jury he was only an accessory, which is a less serious offense.