Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind behind the September 11 attacks will now answer hundreds of written questions from lawyers preparing to defend Osama bin Laden's son-in-law at a New York City terrorism trial next month, a judge said Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
The government agreed to let lawyers for defendant Sulaiman Abu Ghaith submit the questions to Mohammed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he is held at a detention facility, and U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan gave his approval in a written order, the AP reported.
At a hearing later in the day, though, the judge said he was "deeply skeptical" that defense lawyers had adequately explained why it was necessary to question Mohammed on the eve of a trial that was scheduled to start Monday, according to the AP.
The judge postponed the start of the trial until March 3 for Abu Ghaith, who is charged with conspiring to kill Americans in his role as al-Qaida's spokesman after 9/11, the AP reported. He has pleaded not guilty and if convicted could face life in prison.
Ghaith's attorney, Stanley Cohen, has said the interview will determine whether Mohammed would be an appropriate witness for his client's trial, according to the AP.
In court papers, defense lawyers had told the judge that Mohammed was "the most qualified person alive" to tell them whether Abu Ghaith knew of any al-Qaida terrorist operations or was part of any conspiracy to kill Americans, the AP reported.
"Because of his intimate and unsurpassed knowledge of the shoe bomb attacks as acknowledged by the government, Mr. Mohammed's information will be uniquely and unquestionably authoritative on the subject of who was involved in, or even had knowledge of, the shoe bomb attacks," the lawyers said, according to the AP. "The defense anticipates that Mr. Mohammed's information will be favorable to Mr. Abu Ghaith."
The list of questions will likely be the most extensive that Mohammed has answered for lawyers preparing for a trial that is not his own, the AP reported. Cohen resorted to written questions after saying the government was too restrictive in its demands for an in-person interview.
In approving the process for Mohammed to answer written questions, the judge said the deal between prosecutors and the defense had probably gone far beyond what he would have allowed had the decision been left up to him, the AP reported.
"I am deeply skeptical that there was any right of access to Khalid Sheik Mohammed in the first place on the showing that the defense made," Kaplan said, according to the AP.
Kaplan said the delay by the defense in making a request that could have been made months ago was likely to be a problem for the defense "if push comes to shove on this issue," the AP reported.
Mohammed is awaiting trial with four others in a military tribunal that has gotten bogged down in pretrial issues, according to the AP. The government has asked for a trial late this year, though it's likely to be after that.
