Editing Ramzi bin al-Shibh (section)

===Guantanamo military commission===
Bin al-Shibh and four other captives classified as [[high value detainees]] ([[Khalid Sheikh Mohammed]], [[Mustafa al-Hawsawi]], [[Ammar al-Baluchi]] and [[Walid Bin Attash]]) were charged in [[Guantanamo military commission]]s in Spring 2008. The men triggered controversy when they announced that they did not want US-appointed attorneys and they planned to boycott their commissions.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} The military commissions, as authorized by President [[George W. Bush]], did not permit suspects to forgo legal representation, to act as their own attorneys, or to boycott their commissions.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} The commissions authorized by the [[Military Commissions Act of 2006]], did authorize suspects to serve as their own attorneys.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

The other four men eventually agreed to attend their commissions. Bin al-Shibh, however, has continued to refuse to attend. His appointed attorneys had expressed concern about him and his state of mental health. The top-secret location of [[camp 7 (Guantanamo)|Camp 7]], where the high-value detainees are held, had been off limits to military attorneys. The individual detainees are hooded when they travel from the camp to their commission hearings.

Suzanne Lachelier, one of the attorneys and a reserve officer in the [[Judge Advocate General Corps]], offered to wear a hood, in order to be taken to him when the camp authorities initially refused her examination of the prison. She finally gained approval from the military commission judge to see the prison in the autumn of 2008. To get to the prison, Lachelier and her co-counsel, Rich Federico, were taken in a windowless van that was used to transport detainees.  They were the first defense lawyers to visit Camp 7.

The judge presiding over the commission's pre-trial motions ordered bin al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi to undergo [[competency evaluation (law)|mental competency hearings]]. On December 8, 2008, [[Khalid Sheikh Mohammed]] told the judge that he, along with the other four men who had been indicted, wished to confess and plead guilty; however, they wished to delay their plea until after the competency hearings of bin al-Shibh and Hawsawi, because all five men wanted to make their pleas together.<ref>{{cite news |title=Top 9/11 suspects to plead guilty |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7770856.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |date=December 8, 2008 |access-date=December 8, 2008}}</ref>

On May 17, 2010, ''Saba News'' reported that Bin al-Shibh and four other Yemenis would face charges in the summer of 2010.<ref name=SabaNews-2010-05-17>
{{cite news |url=http://www.sabanews.net/en/news214477.htm |title=U.S. to try five Yemeni Gitmo detainees |publisher=[[Saba News]] |date=May 17, 2010 |access-date=May 17, 2010 |quote=The U.S. will start in this summer trying five Yemeni detainees at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay in Cuba including Ramzi Al-Shaibah, Walid Bin Atash and Abdul Rahim Al-Nasheri, the September 26 website has reported. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100518181034/http://www.sabanews.net/en/news214477.htm |archive-date=May 18, 2010}}</ref> Two other Yemenis to face charges were: [[Walid Bin Atash]] and [[Abdul Rahim Al-Nasheri]]. ''Saba News'' did not name the fourth and fifth individuals.

In 2011, the lawyers of Bin al-Shibh argued that he may be unfit to stand trial and participate in his own defense. They have asked that the proceedings against him and his four co-accused be stayed until his mental state is determined. They say he has been prescribed [[psychotropic]] drugs of the sort that are used to treat [[schizophrenia]]. Bin al-Shibh claims that he is mentally fit, has denounced his lawyers, and says that he wants to represent himself before the commissions.<ref>[https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20120804060130/http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/05/31/ramzi%2Dbin%2Dal%2Dshibh "Ramzi bin al-Shibh"], Human Rights Watch, May 31, 2011</ref>

In October 2012, the U.S. began the trials of al-Shibh and the other four 9/11 defendants. On January 31, 2014, [[Carol Rosenberg]], reporting in the ''[[Miami Herald]]'', wrote that Pohl had to delay al-Shibh's trial again, because the panel of three military psychiatrists who tried to determine whether he was mentally competent to stand trial had not been able to reach a conclusion.<ref name=MiamiHerald2014-01-31>{{cite news |url=http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/01/31/3905404/alleged-911-conspirator-stymies.html |title=Alleged 9/11 conspirator stymies mental-health board |newspaper=[[Miami Herald]] |author=Carol Rosenberg| date=January 31, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201183021/http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/01/31/3905404/alleged-911-conspirator-stymies.html| archive-date=February 1, 2014
| url-status=live | quote=A military mental health board has told the 9/11 trial judge that it couldn't evaluate the competency of an accused Sept. 11 plotter, two defense lawyers said Friday, casting doubt on resumption of hearings next month at Guantánamo.|author-link=Carol Rosenberg}}</ref> Al-Shibh had not been prepared to answer the doctor's questions. On August 24, 2023, Al-Shibh was declared unfit to stand trial by a U.S. tribunal due to his mental state, after lawyers argued 'CIA torture made him delusional and psychotic'.<ref name="Board"/>