Guantanamo Bay Judge Rules 9/​11 Capital Defendant Mentally Incompetent to Stand Trial

On September 21, 2023, a mil­i­tary judge in Guantanamo Bay ruled that Ramzi Bin al Shibh, one of five defen­dants in the 9/​11 case for whom the death penal­ty is being sought, is men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent to stand tri­al. Mr. Bin al Shibh, who has been detained for 21 years, will remain in cus­tody at Guantanamo as author­i­ties attempt to treat the post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der caused when he was forced to under­go ​“enhanced inter­ro­ga­tions” by the U.S. government.

“[T]he total­i­ty of the facts demon­strates an accused who is whol­ly focused on his delu­sions,” Military Judge Colonel Matthew McCall wrote in his 11-page opin­ion. ​“They dis­rupt his sleep and lead to out­bursts that result in dis­ci­pli­nary con­fine­ment mea­sures. The result is a sleep-deprived accused whose pri­ma­ry focus is on stop­ping attacks, not defend­ing him­self against the charged offens­es. …The fact that Mr. bin al Shibh under­stands the vital role that his defense coun­sel plays and yet, again and again, he focus­es his counsel’s work on stop­ping his delu­sion­al harass­ment, demon­strates the impair­ment of his abil­i­ty to assist in his defense.”

Released on August 24, 2023, one pub­licly avail­able page of an 80-page med­ical report by a three-mem­ber board of the Defense Health Agency con­firms Mr. Bin al Shibh’s diag­no­sis and his present inabil­i­ty to stand tri­al. Although there is doc­u­men­ta­tion of Mr. Bin al Shibh’s men­tal health prob­lems since 2004, a com­plete eval­u­a­tion was only com­plet­ed in 2023. A pre­vi­ous attempt in 2008 was nev­er com­plet­ed due to Mr. Bin al Shibh’s refusal to coop­er­ate, which the board wrote at the time could be the result of a mental disease.

For years, Mr. Bin al Shibh has report­ed ​“stab­bing pains, vibra­tions, and burn­ing” result­ing from what he believes are ​“invis­i­ble attacks” by author­i­ties and has request­ed a halt to these attacks before he con­sid­ers any plea deal. Mr. Bin al Shibh cov­ers, dis­ables, or dam­ages sur­veil­lance cam­eras in response to these ​“attacks” and sub­se­quent­ly receives soli­tary con­fine­ment as pun­ish­ment. Since September 7, he has been on a hunger strike in protest of dis­ci­pli­nary iso­la­tion, of which he has 30 days left to serve, accord­ing to a September 25 press release by his lawyer David Bruck.

Mr. Bruck wrote that ​“It now remains for the US mil­i­tary author­i­ties on Guantanamo to attempt to treat Mr. Bin al Shibh’s PTSD. This may prove impos­si­ble, how­ev­er. Mr. Bin al Shibh remains under the con­trol of the same author­i­ties who tor­tured and iso­lat­ed him, and who have failed to treat his PTSD before now. Moreover, there are no known instances of suc­cess­ful treat­ment of tor­ture sur­vivors while they remain under the tor­tur­ing government’s cus­tody and con­trol” (empha­sis in original).

Mr. Bin al Shibh, a 50-year-old Yemeni nation­al, has been in U.S. cus­tody since 2002 because of his alleged par­tic­i­pa­tion in the 9/​11 attacks. From 2002 – 2006 he was held in soli­tary con­fine­ment at CIA black sites where he was sub­ject to ​“enhanced inter­ro­ga­tion tech­niques,” some of which includ­ed being shack­led in a stand­ing posi­tion for up to 72 hours, repeat­ed­ly slammed against a wood­en par­ti­tion, pro­longed forced nudi­ty, and severe food restric­tion. Even after a CIA psy­chol­o­gist warned of the severe and poten­tial­ly irre­versible psy­cho­log­i­cal harm of two and half years of soli­tary con­fine­ment, Mr. Bin al Shibh remained iso­lat­ed for anoth­er year and a half.