WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer for the suspected organizer of a deadly al-Qaida attack on a U.S. warship in the year 2000 wants a military court to determine his competence before trial, arguing that he has a traumatic brain injury “arising from torture in CIA custody.”
A trial is scheduled to start this month for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in the killing of 17 U.S. sailors, who died when an explosives-laden skiff blew up alongside the USS Cole destroyer off the coast of Yemen. He faces a possible death penalty. The proceedings at a U.S. Navy base in Cuba, where he is detained, could last up to five weeks.
Captured in 2002, Nashiri underwent waterboarding, beatings, and confinement in a crate for years in CIA custody at clandestine detention facilities. Declassified documents released in 2018 graphically described how he was stripped naked, repeatedly slammed against walls and left “moaning, shaking and asking God to help him repeatedly.”
Nashiri's attorney, Allison Ferber Miller, asked a federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to delay the proceedings until the military commission has had enough time to determine his mental capacity.
A psychiatrist for the defense who examined Nashiri in August concluded that he is “not competent,” Miller wrote.
“He diagnosed a traumatic brain injury (TBI) arising from torture in CIA custody, a severe neurocognitive disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and major depression,” Miller wrote. “He concluded that Petitioner cannot understand the proceedings or assist his counsel.”
Miller wrote that Nashiri is not asking the federal judge to determine his competence but to delay the trial until the military commission has had “a meaningful opportunity” to do so.
The military judge had ordered a competency evaluation, “but left no time for a meaningful hearing” on whether al-Nashiri is fit for trial, Miller wrote, adding that the military judge has declined three times to stay the proceedings until the question of Nashiri's competence was resolved.
Lawyers in the case were scheduled to travel to Guantanamo Bay on Saturday, Miller wrote. The military judge left open the possibility for a competency hearing on Monday morning, the same day the trial was scheduled to begin.
The trial has since been rescheduled to start a week later on Oct. 26, according to Ronald Flesvig, the spokesman for the Office of Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay.
The Office of the Chief Prosecutor for military commissions at Guantanamo Bay did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
Proceedings before the military commission were previously mired in delays and in legal challenges over admissibility of evidence from the torture-aided interrogations of Nashiri and over other circumstances of his trial and detention. Questions over the handling of Nashiri’s case, like those of other Guantanamo Bay detainees accused of planning and aiding al-Qaida’s 9/11 attacks on the United States, have led to constitutional debates and other problems.
FILE - A small boat guards the stricken USS Cole in Aden, Yemen, Oct. 20, 2000. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali, File)
A Florida man has been charged with killing the mother of his children nearly 15 years ago, after his ex-fiancee went missing just hours after their pretaped appearance on “The People’s Court” was broadcast, police said.
Orlando police announced the arrest Wednesday of Dale Smith Jr., 55, on a charge of second-degree murder. The body of 33-year-old Michelle Parker has not been recovered, but all evidence leads to Smith as the person responsible for her death, police said.
Smith's attorney, Rajan Joshi, said during a hearing Thursday afternoon that he didn't believe the state could meet its burden of proof to convict Smith based on the information presented in the criminal complaint. A judge ordered Smith to be held without bond pending a detention hearing, which wasn't immediately scheduled.
Joshi said later Thursday during a phone interview that the prosecution's case has many challenges that he plans to explore. The defense attorney said the investigation focused almost exclusively on Smith from the beginning and ignored other potential leads.
“Michelle Parker worked at a bar. She was a very attractive young lady,” Joshi said. “They (police) did not go out and investigate other possibilities that could have happened to her. This is one of those cases where they go and they immediately target the usual suspect, which is the ex.”
Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith, who is not related to Smith, said during the news conference on Wednesday that the case never stopped being a priority. Smith was the last known person to see or hear from Parker before she went missing on Nov. 17, 2011, when she dropped their children off at his home, the chief said.
“Over the past year, we expanded our investigative team looking into this case and took a fresh, focused look at all the evidence,” the police chief said. “We reexamined testimony and conflicting statements made by the suspect and used advances in digital forensics to uncover and analyze additional evidence.”
Police gave few details about what evidence they had against Smith, but Detective Phillip McMican confirmed that police had collected new evidence in the past year, as well as new insights into old evidence thanks to technological advancements.
“Vehicles, electronic devices, phones, computers — we’re able to better interpret that evidence today than what we were able to do back in 2011,” McMican said.
Police continue to search for Parker's body. Her vehicle was found abandoned a day after her disappearance, and her cellphone was later recovered from an Orlando-area lake.
Investigators have not publicly stated a motive for Parker’s murder.
On the day of Parker's disappearance, an episode of “The People's Court” featuring her and Smith was broadcast. Smith had sued Parker, claiming that a $5,000 engagement ring that he bought for her was lost when she threw it at him during an argument. Judge Marilyn Milian ultimately ruled that both parties were responsible for the ring's loss and ordered Parker to pay $2,500 to Smith for half of it.
This undated photo provided by the City of Orlando on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, shows Michelle Parker. (City of Orlando via AP)
This undated booking photo provided by the Orlando Police Department on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, shows Dale Smith Jr. (Orlando Police Department via AP)
In this image taken from video released by the Orlando Police Department, Dale Smith Jr. is taken into custody in Orlando, Fla., on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (Orlando Police Department via AP)
In this image taken from video released by the Orlando Police Department, Dale Smith Jr. is taken into custody in Orlando, Fla., on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (Orlando Police Department via AP)
