Pakistani newspaper the Nation reports that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed ‘used his first day in court to intimidate his co-defendants into refusing their right to counsel.’ On top of that he asked the court to, please, execute him.
‘By the end of the 10-hour arraignment, Mohammed and co-defendant Ramzi bin al-Shibh had informed the judge that they wished to die as martyrs.’ In total, five Al Qaeda suspects are put on trial, all of whom refuse legal counsel, saying that the only law they recognize is Sharia law, not American nor international law.
‘Mohammed and bin al-Shibh, who is accused of helping coordinate the attacks, told Kohlmann that they want to die as martyrs. “If I’m killed, I will be killed for the sake of God,” bin al-Shibh said. “I’ve been seeking to be a martyr for years.”The judge asked Mohammed numerous times whether he understood that he faces the death penalty. “That is what I wish. I wish to be martyred,” he said.’
The lawyer of one of the suspects complains that KSM told his client not to use the lawyer to his advantage. “Are you in the American army now,” Mohammed asked his co-defendant.
And that was the end of it. All five suspects are determined not to find the legal charges, which probably is not such a big deal anyway, considering that the evidence against them is considered to be overwhelming.
As an aside, the traditions – or Hadith – of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed teach that when one of the Muslims was basically begging to be killed in battle so he could become a martyr, the prophet was not exactly positive about it.
But details like that are frequently ignored by Muslim extremists.
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