WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has vacated a plea deal reached this week for the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and two accomplices, reinstating them as cases punishable by the death penalty.
The move came two days after the military commission at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, announced that the official assigned to oversee the court-martial, retired Brigadier General Susan Escallier, had reached plea agreements with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two defendants accused of being accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, in the attacks.
Letters sent to families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in al-Qaeda attacks said the court settlement stipulated that the three would be sentenced to life in prison at most.
In an order released late Friday, Austin wrote that he had decided that he had the authority to make a decision on whether to accept the settlements. Austin rescinded Escallier’s approval.
“I have determined that in light of the importance of the decision to enter into pretrial agreements with the defendants … responsibility for such a decision must rest with me,” Austin said in a memo to case supervisor Susan Escallier.
“I hereby withdraw from the three pretrial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024,” the clerk added.
Relatives and Republicans react
The settlements reached with Mohammed and two alleged accomplices were the final straw in these cases, but they provoked outrage among the relatives of some of the more than 3,000 people killed on September 11, 2001.
Families of the attack victims condemned the deal for eliminating any chance of full trials and possible death sentences. Republicans were quick to criticize President Joe Biden’s administration for the deal, though after it was announced The White House said it was “unaware” previous on it.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, condemned the plea deal in a social media post earlier Friday, calling it “disgraceful.” Cotton said he had introduced a bill that would mandate that those accused of the Sept. 11 attacks face trial and the possibility of the death penalty.
Mohammed — considered by the United States to be the main mastermind behind the attack in which hijacked passenger planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania — and the two other defendants were expected to formally enter their plea agreements as early as next week.
The New York Times reported this week that Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for life in prison rather than face trial and the death penalty.
Source: With information from AP and AFP
