A military appeals court ruled on Monday to uphold plea deals for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-defendants implicated in the 9/11 attacks, allowing them to plead guilty and evade the death penalty. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s attempt to nullify these agreements, citing the severity of the attacks, was deemed overreaching as the deals had already been initiated following two years of negotiations.
As Valuetainment previously reported, the controversial agreements were first offered to Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi in July, taking the death penalty off the table in exchange for their pleas. All three suspected terrorists have been detained at Guantanamo Bay since 2008 in connection with the 9/11 attacks.
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Following public outrage and statements from the families of the 2,976 victims of the attack, Secretary Austin revoked the deals two days after they were offered. However, at the time, the court ruled that Austin acted too late, reinforcing that the defendants had started fulfilling the terms of their plea agreements. Further appeals elevated the case to a Pentagon appellate court, where a three-judge panel upheld the lower court’s decision.
“We agree with the military judge that the secretary did not have authority to revoke respondents’ existing PTAs because the respondents had started performance of the PTAs,” the judges wrote in their ruling.
The ruling has reignited discussions about the legal proceedings at Guantanamo Bay, where the case has faced scrutiny due to the use of torture-tainted evidence. Many families of 9/11 victims oppose the plea deals, viewing them as unjust.
The Pentagon now faces a decision on whether to appeal the ruling or proceed with the plea-taking process next month.
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