It’s been 12 years since Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged 9/11 mastermind, arrived at the Guantánamo Bay Detention Center off Cuba. There’ve been 29 rounds of pre-trial hearings, costing around $6 billion so far, according to Department of Defense estimates. And there’s still no date in sight for the trial.
What’s taking so long? VICE News visited Mohammed’s defense team in Guantánamo Bay to see why the so-called trial of the century is still so far off.
Videos by VICE
David Nevin, who heads the team defending Mohammed, believes that protecting those who took part in the torture program at the U.S. detention facility has become more important in this case than bringing those accused of plotting 9/11 to justice.
Read: Accused 9/11 masterminds want to put CIA black sites on trial
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was subjected to waterboarding and ”rectal rehydration,” among other things, during the three and a half years he was in CIA custody before being transferred to Gitmo. “It’s the reason we’re here,” Nevin told VICE News. “The reason we’re spending $76,000 a minute is to protect the people who violated all of these domestic and international laws.”
VICE News also spoke to a 9/11 victim’s family member who witnessed one round of pre-trial hearings at Guantánamo Bay late last year, coming face to face with the men accused of killing his brother and 2,975 other people.
This segment originally aired April 30, 2018, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.
