CIA abuse rendered 9/11 defendant unfit for trial: US military judge

A United States military judge at Guantanamo Bay has ruled one of the defendants in a case about the 9/11 attacks is unfit for trial, after a military medical panel found that sustained abuse had rendered him lastingly psychotic.

The judge, Colonel Matthew McCall, said the incompetency finding for Ramzi bin al-Shibh meant that the prosecution of his four co-defendants would continue without him. Al-Shibh remains in custody.

McCall issued his ruling late on Thursday. Pre-trial hearings for the remaining defendants resumed Friday in a military courtroom at Guantanamo, the US naval base in Cuba. No trial date has been set for the case, which has been slowed by logistical problems, high turnover and legal challenges.

Originally from Yemen, al-Shibh is accused of organising one cell of the 19 hijackers who commandeered four commercial planes to carry out attacks on September 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. The attacks were the deadliest of their kind on US soil.