This photo released January 17, 2002 by the FBI and the US Justice Department shows Ramzi Binalshibh/AFP
FORT MEADE, Dec 18 – A Guantanamo Bay detainee who is accused of planning the 9/11 attacks was removed from court Wednesday for the third time in 24 hours, after complaining of torture.
Yemeni suspect Ramzi Binalshibh was escorted out of a pre-trial hearing at the US naval base in Cuba seconds after an impromptu speech in which he said the authorities had done nothing to stop noises that he is hearing in his cell at night.
“I have to leave. I asked you to stop these vibrations. I don’t want to stay here as long as there is torture there,” Binalshibh, who was ejected twice from the court on Tuesday, told military Judge James Pohl.
“If there is no power to stop this you should resign,” he said.
Binalshibh’s defense team on Tuesday suggested that guards at the prison may be responsible for noise that was preventing him from sleeping, a contention that the judge said had neither been proven nor unproven.
Judge Pohl warned Binalshibh that his actions were disrupting Wednesday’s legal proceedings and that he would be removed if he did not stop talking.
“This is my life, this is torture. You have to stop this,” Binalshibh said as he was removed from the court.
The latest hearing for Binalshibh and four other men accused of planning the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York in 2001 is being screened for reporters at the Fort Meade military base in Maryland, via closed circuit feed.
Binalshibh, whose alleged crimes include helping the hijackers find flight schools in the United States and of financing the airliner plot, and his fellow accused are eventually expected to go on trial in 2015.
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