Winnipeg woman going to Guantanamo Bay for 9/11 hearings
Winnipegger Ellen Judd is going to Guantanamo Bay to witness the pretrial hearings for the five men accused of plotting the 9/11 terrorist attack.
Judd is eligible to go because her partner of 15 years, Christine Egan, died in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001.
"The numbers [of people who can attend the hearings] are limited, so there is a lottery and my name has come up at this point, and I decided I would go," she explained.
Christine Egan was visiting her brother, Michael Egan, at work on the 105th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center when it was struck by a hijacked plane.
"This is something to go and see, to deal with this part of the process of grieving," Judd said, adding she has no idea how she will feel when she gets there but is taking her brother for support.
Judd leaves on Sunday and will witness a week of pretrial hearings.
"I will certainly be carrying the memory of somebody who was incredibly generous and passionate and loved life," she said.
Judd said the hearings will discuss different motions that are under consideration for inclusion during the trial of the five men.
"The pretrial hearings are actually much more interesting than one might have thought, because this is the place at which there are discussions about the evidence and the circumstances at which the evidence was obtained," she explained.
"There are issues about torture and indefinite detention."
Judd said justice is not her primary focus for attending. Rather, she wants to make sure something like the 9/11 attacks doesn't happen again.
She said if the men are eventually found guilty she would like to see them sentenced to life in prison, rather than being sentenced to death.
The professor of anthropology ultimately hopes that something can be learned from this process.
"I think that the most one could achieve in a situation like this is trying to find a way in which … there would be fewer civilian casualties, fewer lives lost. That would be the best outcome one might be possible to obtain."
