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WASHINGTON - The United States will begin initial hearings on Saturday for 14 men transferred to the military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba from secret CIA jails, US defence officials said.
The 14 include Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and the Indonesian known as Hambali, who is accused of planning the 2002 bombings that killed more than 200 people in Bali.
No reporters or other outside observers such as defence lawyers would be allowed to attend the hearings to determine whether the men were enemy combatants, US officials said.
"We will commence with the combatant status review tribunals for the 14 high-value detainees that came into DoD [Department of Defence] custody in September," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. "We will provide transcripts, with necessary [editing] for national security."
The prison camp at Guantanamo Bay holds about 385 suspects accused of fighting for al Qaeda, the Taleban or associated Islamist militant movements.
- REUTERS
