The main suspect in the USS Cole bombing was formally arraigned Wednesday at Guantanamo in the first such case since US President Barack Obama reversed course and ordered controversial military trials to resume. Saudi-born Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 46, who was appearing in court for the first time since his 2002 arrest, faces the death penalty if convicted of planning and preparing the October 2000 attack on the US Navy destroyer in Yemen's port of Aden.
Militants riding an explosives-laden skiff blew a 30-foot by 30-foot (10-m by 10m) hole in the USS Cole, killing 17 sailors and wounding 40 more. Nashiri, who has not been seen publicly since his 2002 capture in the Gulf and subsequent incarceration at secret CIA prisons, appeared wearing prison clothes with short hair and a stubble. But at the request of his lawyers, he was neither handcuffed nor in ankle chains, and he smiled several times at the judge.
In response to a question from Judge James Pohl, he said: "I do not speak English." With the aid of an interpreter, Nashiri said he had chosen to wear the prison dress, and added his lawyers were "doing the right job." The Pentagon believes he bought the small boat and explosives used in the Cole attack.
He is also accused of involvement in an attempted attack against another American warship in Aden, the USS The Sullivans in January 2000. US military prosecutors also accuse Nashiri of planning an attack on a French civilian oil tanker MV Limburg in the Gulf of Aden in 2002 that left one Bulgarian crew member dead and caused an oil spill of 90,000 barrels. His trial is not due to begin for several months, and his lawyers refused to say how he would plead.
Nashiri, who is believed to have met several times with late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is accused of murder, acts of terrorism, conspiracy to commit terrorism and attacks against civilians. Along with five men accused of orchestrating the attacks of September 11, 2001, Nashiri is among the "high-value detainees" held by the United States, and he could be the first terror suspect sentenced to death by a military court under the Obama administration.
A congressional investigation found that Nashiri was waterboarded while in custody, and that handlers loaded a gun and turned on a power drill near his head. Obama has denounced waterboarding - a type of simulated or near-drowning - as torture, and Nashiri's defence team said Tuesday the United States had lost "all moral authority" to try their client by torturing him in a secret prison.
"By torturing Mr Nashiri, the United States has lost all moral authority to try Mr Nashiri," his civilian lawyer Richard Kammen told reporters. "This is a big part of the case - what happened and how he was treated is important to a death penalty case, should we get to a death penalty case."