The trial of the five men accused of plotting the September 11 attacks could go on "for years", lawyers for both the defence and prosecution said on Sunday.
The predictions came a day after the alleged ring-leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants turned their arraignment at a Guantanamo Bay war crimes tribunal into a 13-hour stand-off. The accused appeared intent on frustrating and delaying the process by refusing to answer questions.
Brigadier General Mark Martins, the chief prosecutor, said he fully expected the defence to file a barrage of motions complaining that the Guantanamo legal process was unfair and unconstitutional. The civilian trial of another September 11 conspirator, Zacarias Moussaoui, took four years.
The trial date for the five accused, who face the death penalty if convicted of 2,976 counts of murder in the 2001 US terrorist attacks, is officially set for May 2013. However James Connell, for the defence, said that date was only a "placeholder" until a more realistic timetable could be set.
The trial has been criticised by human rights groups and former military lawyers for being too secretive and loaded in favour of the prosecution. The accused men were kept for several years in CIA 'black' sites without legal rights and subjected to treatment that the Red Cross has said amounted to torture.
Connell said the arraignment, in which the accused were given Pentagon-paid defence lawyers, offered an insight into the battle ahead.
"[It] demonstrates that this will be a long, hard-fought but peaceful struggle against secrecy, torture and the misguided institution of the military commissions," he said.
