The alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks will be tried in a civilian court blocks from where al-Qaeda hijackers crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center, the US government announced.

Attorney General Eric Holder said prosecutors would seek the death penalty against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four suspected co-plotters, who are held at Guantanamo Bay but will be moved to a New York prison ahead of their trial.

"After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for the attacks of September 11 will finally face justice," Holder said, without giving a date.

"They will be brought to New York to answer to their alleged crimes in a courthouse just blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood."

Five more Guantanamo detainees, including Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, accused of plotting the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole destroyer off Yemen that killed 17 US sailors, will be tried before military commissions.

9/11 families unhappy

The military tribunals were heavily criticised after being set up by former president George W. Bush in late 2001, but have since been reformed to grant defendants more rights to evidence and bar evidence obtained through torture.

The announcement, key to President Barack Obama's plans to shutter Guantanamo by January, was blasted by families of the nearly 3000 victims of the 11 September 2001 attacks.

"To allow a terrorist and a war criminal the opportunity of having US constitutional protections is a wrong thing to do and it's never been done before," said Ed Kowalski of the 9/11 Families for a Secure America Foundation.

Peter Gadiel, who lost his 23-year-old son James in the World Trade Center's north tower, accused Obama of trying to establish a "show trial" that would end up being "a circus".

The decision drew flak from Obama's Republican foes in Congress, who have mounted a vigorous campaign to block the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to US soil.

Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called it "a step backwards for the security of our country" that "puts Americans unnecessarily at risk."

Shift in war on terror

The city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said he supported holding the trial in New York, which suffered the brunt of the attacks.

"It is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site where so many New Yorkers were murdered," Bloomberg said.

The move to a civilian trial signalled a major shift in the treatment of "war on terror" suspects and raised serious legal questions about evidence potentially tainted by harsh interrogation techniques.

Sheikh Mohammed is known to have been waterboarded — subjected to simulated drowning — 183 times during his years in US custody.

Holder, citing information not yet made public, asserted the tainted evidence would not prevent a "successful" outcome of the trials.

He insisted that a New York jury could still be impartial and that all legal requirements would be met before the suspects are brought onto US soil, with Congress being given a 45-day warning.

A major step forward

Defence Secretary Robert Gates hailed the move as a major step forward as Obama seeks to close the detention center at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba by his self-imposed 22 January deadline.

Officials told AFP that up to 65 of the 215 inmates who still linger at Guantanamo are ready for trial and Holder said to expect more announcements in "the very near future".

Another 69 Guantanamo inmates are cleared for release but struggling to find countries to take them in. The fate of the remainder — less than 100 — remains unclear.

Greg Craig, tasked by the White House with overseeing Guantanamo's closure, resigned on Friday after criticism of his handling of the process.

Earlier military commission charges against Sheikh Mohammed and co-defendants Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, Walid bin Attash and Mustapha al-Hawsawi were suspended when Obama launched his policy review.

In addition to the 11 September attacks, Sheikh Mohammed has claimed some 30 operations against the West, including the 2002 beheading of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan.

After his 1 March 2003 capture, the Pakistani man self-proclaimed as the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks was handed over to US agents who held him in secret prisons for over three years before sending him to Guantanamo in September 2006.

AFP

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