WASHINGTON – The Pentagon on Monday charged six Guantanamo Bay detainees with murder and war crimes for the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Officials sought the death penalty in the unprecedented military tribunal case that has been clouded by revelations that the key suspect suffered interrogation tactics that critics call torture.

The son of a Sept. 11 victim said he was relieved by the development and hoped it would bring justice. Critics said the trial would be a sham.

Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, the legal adviser to the tribunal system, announced that 169 charges had been sworn against six men “alleged to be responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks” in 2001 that killed nearly 3,000 people.

“These charges allege a long-term, highly sophisticated, organized plan by al-Qaida to attack the United States of America,” Hartmann told a Pentagon press conference.

Officials said they’ll seek the death penalty and hope to try all six together. That would make it the first capital trial under the terrorism-era military tribunal system.

Hartmann said the six include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the attacks in which hijackers flew planes into buildings in New York and Washington. Another hijacked plane crashed in the fields of western Pennsylvania.

The other five men being charged are: Mohammed al-Qahtani, who officials have labeled the 20th hijacker; Ramzi Binalshibh, said to have been the main intermediary between the hijackers and al-Qaida leaders; Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, known as Ammar al-Baluchi, a nephew and lieutenant of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed; al-Baluchi’s assistant, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi; and Waleed bin Attash, a detainee known as Khallad, who investigators say selected and trained some of the 19 hijackers.

Al-Qahtani also has alleged torture and last fall recanted a confession he said he made after he was beaten, abused and humiliated at Guantanamo. Officials have acknowledged that he was subjected to harsh treatment at the prison authorized by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Original rules allowed the military to exclude defendants from their own trials, permitted statements made under torture, and forbade appeal to an independent court; but the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the system in 2006 and a revised plan set up after Congress enacted a new law has included some additional rights.

The decision to seek the death penalty also is likely to draw criticism from the international community. A number of countries, including U.S. allies, have said they would object to the use of capital punishment for their nationals held at Guantanamo.

Associated Press writers Lolita Baldor and Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report