Guantanamo judge nixes Sept. 11 suspect's bid for new lawyers
Source: Reuters
World | Wed Jul 20, 2016 5:11pm EDT
Guantanamo judge nixes Sept. 11 suspect's bid for new lawyers
FORT MEADE, MD. | BY LACEY JOHNSON
A Yemeni man facing charges relating to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States had his bid to fire his court-appointed lawyers denied again by a judge on Wednesday at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Suspected al Qaeda training camp leader Walid bin Attash, who could face the death penalty if convicted, has been fighting to replace his lead attorneys in the case since October. The judge, U.S. Army Colonel James Pohl, denied the request for a third time, saying bin Attash failed to show good cause for the move.
"Any attorney that approaches me ... I might lose control over myself," bin Attash said through an interpreter at the military tribunal. He said he had not met with his legal team in five months.
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Bormann, a Chicago lawyer who has represented bin Attash since 2011, said in February that years of isolated detention and torture had turned him into "a damaged human being" who no longer trusted her.
She blamed the breakdown in attorney-client trust largely on the U.S. government, which she accused of secretly recording their meetings and seizing legal documents from bin Attash's cell. She also cited an 18-month delay caused by an FBI investigation of defense attorneys.
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Read more:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guantanamo-suspect-idUSKCN1002UQ