Treatment of September 11 suspects under spotlight for long-awaited Guantanamo hearing

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The now-closed Camp X-Ray, which was used as the first detention facility at Guantanamo Bay for al Qaeda and Taliban militants who were captured after the September 11 attacks. Photo: AP

Published: 2:22pm, 31 May 2016Updated: 2:22pm, 31 May 2016

A pre-trial hearing for five September 11 suspects began on Monday at Guantanamo Bay, with prisoners’ treatment expected to be a focus of the US military court sessions.

Forty-two motions are scheduled for the week-long hearing at the Navy base in Cuba. They include multiple requests by defence lawyers for evidence of how the five suspects were treated at secret Central Intelligence Agency prisons.

James Connell, a defence lawyer, told Judge Army Colonel James Pohl that medical records provided by the prosecution had been insufficient, lacking personal identifying information and a chronology of patient care.

A photo provided by US Central Command shows a man they identify as Abu Zubaydah. Zubaydah, who has not been seen publicly since his 2002 capture, has been called as a witness by a defendant in the September 11 case. Photo: AP

“This is not the way that discovery is supposed to work ... the medical records are actually extremely important,” said Connell, who represents Kuwaiti inmate Ammar al Baluchi, an alleged al Qaeda money mover.

He is among five men suspected of conspiring to help hijackers slam airliners into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on September 11, 2001. Almost 3,000 people died in the attacks.

Two Guantanamo prisoners unrelated to the September 11 case could testify to corroborate statements made in February by Yemeni defendant Ramzi bin al Shibh. He has accused guards of using noises and vibrations to torment him for years.