9/11 detainee Ramzi bin al-Shibh, 51, is ruled unfit to stand trial in death-penalty case after Guantanamo Bay judge accepted he was 'too psychologically damaged' after lawyers argued CIA 'torture' made him 'delusional and psychotic'

A suspect believed to be one of the masterminds behind the 9/11 attacks has been deemed mentally unfit to stand trial by a military judge following on from a medical panel recommendation.

The panel announced earlier this week that Ramzi bin al-Shibh, 51, had become psychotic and diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after being ‘tortured’ by the CIA in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 

Defense lawyers argue that the best hope of al-Shibh, a Yemeni accused of organizing one cell of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers, regaining competency to stand trial is a step that some Americans are likely to find distasteful: for him to be provided with post-torture trauma care and no longer subject to solitary confinement. 

His pre-trial hearing was set to begin on Friday.  Colonel Matthew McCall agreed with the panel’s findings that al-Shibh mental state meant that he would not be able to participate fully in his own defense or even to enter a plea. 

A medical board said that the suspect had been rendered ‘delusional and psychotic,’ reports The New York Times.  

Ramzi bin al-Shibh, 51, is ruled unfit to stand trial in death-penalty case after Guantanamo Bay