A United States military judge has ruled that plea agreements reached with the alleged plotters of the September 11, 2001, attacks are valid. This reverses an earlier decision to rescind these agreements. The order by the judge, Air Force Colonel Matthew McCall, indicates that the three accused men could eventually be sentenced to life in prison.
This includes the alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The plea deals would allow them to avoid facing the death penalty. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had rescinded the three separate pretrial agreements on August 2.
This was just two days after a senior Pentagon official signed them. However, the military judge at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba ordered that Mohammed and two accused accomplices be permitted to enter their pleas. A timetable for these pleas has yet to be set.
Colonel McCall argued that while Austin had authority over the process while it was ongoing, rescinding the plea deals fell beyond his remit as defense minister. The Pentagon is currently reviewing the judge’s decision. They have not offered further comment, according to spokesman Major-General Pat Ryder.
Judge reinstates 9/11 plea deals
Prosecutors have also not commented on the ruling, which has not yet been publicly announced. Mohammed and four others were charged in 2012 with conspiring in attacks that resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths.
These cases have been bogged down in litigation concerns, particularly revolving around the torture of defendants by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Pretrial hearings for another defendant, Ammar al-Baluchi, who has not reached a plea deal, are scheduled to continue. A forensic psychiatrist is expected to testify on whether the defendants made their 2007 confessions under duress, following years in secret CIA prisons.
The entire legal process is still anticipated to drag on, even if verdicts and sentences are reached. A US court of appeals would likely need to address many of the issues surrounding the cases, including the destruction of CIA interrogation videos. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was regarded as one of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s most trusted men before being captured in a covert operation in Pakistan in March 2003.
He spent three years in secret CIA prisons before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. Bin Attash, reportedly involved in training two of the 9/11 hijackers, was captured alongside Mohammed in 2003 and also held in secret prisons. Al-Hawsawi, suspected of managing the finances for the 9/11 attacks, was arrested in Pakistan on March 1, 2003.
He faced similar detention conditions before being sent to Guantanamo in 2006.
