Is it any wonder?

Jose Padilla is suffering from mental health problems — caused by his treatment during 31/2 years in solitary confinement — that may mean he is incompetent to stand trial, according to two psychiatric experts for the defense.

Lawyers for the al-Qaida suspect want a federal judge to hold a mental competency hearing to decide whether Padilla understands the nature and consequences of the case against him and whether he can assist in his defense — the main legal standards to proceed to trial.

Prosecutors dispute the defense’s allegations that Padilla was treated inhumanely during his detention in a U.S. Navy brig in South Carolina as an “enemy combatant.” But in papers filed Friday in Miami, they asked U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke to order that a federal Bureau of Prisons doctor evaluate the former Broward County resident.

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