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World Bulletin / News Desk 

The next hearing for five Guantanamo prisoners charged with plotting the Sept. 11 attacks has been postponed for two weeks to allow the defendants to observe the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The chief judge in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals, Army Colonel James Pohl, granted the delay on Monday for suspects.

"“Today, the military commission rescheduled its next hearing from August 8-12 to August 22-26 to accommodate a defense request to avoid hearings during the last 10 days of Ramadan," said defense attorney James Connell, who represents Mohammed's nephew, defendant Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, also known as Ammar al Baluchi.

The five were arraigned at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in May and their next hearing had already been postponed from June because of scheduling conflicts among the defense lawyers.

Pretrial hearings are scheduled to resume on Tuesday in another death penalty case at Guantanamo - that of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, an alleged al Qaeda chieftain accused of helping orchestrate a deadly attack on a U.S. warship off Yemen in 2000.

Nashiri's hearing had been scheduled to run through Friday but has been cut short by a day, also because of Ramadan, the month when Muslims fast during daylight hours.