Al Hawsawi Files Motion to Dismiss
In the 9/11 military commission case, counsel for Mustafa al Hawsawi has filed a motion to dismiss, which was joined by all of his co-defendants in the trial.
Published by The Lawfare Institute
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In the 9/11 military commission case, counsel for Mustafa al Hawsawi has filed a motion to dismiss, which was joined by all of his co-defendants in the trial. Here is the press release that came from al Hawsawi's counsel, along with the redacted motion.
The text of the press release reads as follows:
Last week, lawyers for Mustafa al-Hawsawi filed a motion, joined by all 9-11 defendants, which asserts that the Military Court lacks authority to proceed with trial due to critical omissions in the past year during the death penalty authorization period, known in the commissions as the pre-referral stage. The defective referral motion highlights how defense efforts to develop “significant mitigating factors” have been thwarted by the ongoing deliberate and systematic interference with attorney client communications. The rules require the charging authority, Mr. Bruce McDonald, to consider those factors before authorizing a death penalty prosecution. Defense preparation efforts have also been crippled due to the lack of access to classified evidence and essential resources, such as cleared personnel, Arabic translators and investigators. “The odds continue to be silently and deliberately stacked against a fair process. These men are represented on paper only, not in substance. We have been stripped of our ability to communicate and denied essential resources to carry out our duties,” said Commander Walter Ruiz, a military lawyer representing Mr. Hawsawi.
Raffaela Wakeman is a Senior Director at In-Q-Tel. She started her career at the Brookings Institution, where she spent five years conducting research on national security, election reform, and Congress. During this time she was also the Associate Editor of Lawfare. From there, Raffaela practiced law at the U.S. Department of Defense for four years, advising her clients on privacy and surveillance law, cybersecurity, and foreign liaison relationships. She departed DoD in 2019 to join the Majority Staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where she oversaw the Intelligence Community’s science and technology portfolios, cybersecurity, and surveillance activities. She left HPSCI in May 2021 to join IQT.
Raffaela received her BS and MS in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009 and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2015, where she was recognized for her commitment to public service with the Joyce Chiang Memorial Award. While at the Department of Defense, she was the inaugural recipient of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s General Counsel Award for exhibiting the highest standards of leadership, professional conduct, and integrity.
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