Press Release
Published on May 31, 2011
Washington, D.C.— Human Rights First expresses deep regret at today’s decision to charge Khlaid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) and four other alleged 9/11 co-conspirators in military commissions at Guantánamo Bay. After reversing his 2009 decision, Attorney General Eric Holder announced in April this year that the trials for KSM and the 9/11 conspirators would be transferred back to military commissions. With the charges sworn today against KSM and the 9/11 conspirators, the decision to try them in military commissions at Guantánamo has been made official. Human Rights First’s C. Dixon Osburn said, “It is regrettable that the Administration had buckled to political pressure to try Khlaid Sheik Mohammed and the other alleged 9/11 conspirators before constitutionally questionable tribunals that have virtually no experience adjudicating terrorism trials. Federal courts, by contrast, have successfully convicted more than 400 persons of terror related crimes since 9/11, have more criminal laws to incapacitate possible terrorists, and have more than 200 years of precedent to guide them.”
