(Washington) The American military tribunal at Guantanamo ruled Thursday that one of those accused of planning the September 11 attacks could not be tried because of the psychological after-effects linked to the torture he suffered in detention, according to the New York Times (NYT).
Yemeni Ramzi bin al-Chaïba, 51, was due to appear alongside four other defendants in a trial where they face the death penalty.
However, Colonel Matthew McCall, a military judge, ruled that his psychological aftereffects prevented him from defending himself, according to the newspaper.
Doctors at the US base at Guantanamo, located on the island of Cuba, diagnosed Ramzi bin al-Shaiba with post-traumatic stress disorder and psychotic features, as well as delusional disorder.
Military psychiatrists said his condition made him “unable to understand the nature of the proceedings against him or to cooperate intelligently” with his legal defense team, the New York Times.
Mr. bin al-Chaïba has complained for years of being “tormented by invisible forces which vibrate his bed and his cell and which prick his genitals, depriving him of sleep”, adds the newspaper.
His lawyer claimed his client was tortured by the CIA and driven insane as a result of what the agency called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” which include sleep deprivation, simulated drowning (waterboarding) and beatings.
On Friday, he was scheduled to participate in pretrial proceedings with Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, considered the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and the three other defendants, all of whom have been detained for more than fifteen years at Guantanamo and have still not been tried in court soldier responsible for doing so.
The preliminary hearing on Friday was continued, according to the NYT.