The plea came after a military judge barred two of Hicks’s lawyers from the court proceedings. One of the attorneys had refused to sign a document pledging to follow court rules that weren’t defined.

Hicks attorney Joshua Dratel: “David has been through an extraordinary ordeal for more than five years, and I don’t think that one day, one evening, one situation, more or less is going to change the tide of what he has undergone for five years, and that is going to take some time. And again, as Mr. McLeod said, this is the beginning of a process that I hope will make David whole again, as soon as possible.”

Legal observers are criticizing the trial. Jennifer Daskal of Human Rights Watch said: “Today’s antics highlighted the illegitimacy of a hastily crafted process without established precedent or established rules. It appears that Mr. Hicks was strong-armed into pleading guilty after two of his counsel were thrown off the case.”