9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed faces death penalty after US court overturns controversial plea deal
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed faces death penalty after US court overturns controversial plea deal")
File Photo: A hijacked commercial plane approaches the World Trade Center shortly before crashing into the landmark skyscraper 11 September 2001 in New York. Photograph: (AFP)
This clears the way for military trials that could lead to the death penalty. The ruling ends months of uncertainty surrounding the case and restores the possibility of full trials for Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi — all detained for over two decades at Guantánamo Bay.
A US federal appeals court has struck down a controversial plea agreement that would have spared the alleged 9/11 mastermind and two accomplices the death penalty. On Friday (Jul 11), in a major legal reversal, a US appeals court nullified the plea agreements struck with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two others accused in the September 11, 2001, attacks. This clears the way for military trials that could lead to the death penalty. The ruling ends months of uncertainty surrounding the case and restores the possibility of full trials for Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi — all detained for over two decades at Guantánamo Bay.
What did the court say?
In their ruling, judges Patricia Millett and Neomi Rao ruled that former Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin "acted within the bounds of his legal authority, and we decline to second-guess his judgment." This relates to Austin abruptly withdrawing support for the plea deals last year, saying that "the families of the victims, our service members and the American public deserve the opportunity to see military commission trials carried out in this case."
9/11 trial back on track?
The plea agreements, announced in July 2023, would have taken the death penalty off the table for Mohammed as well as two alleged accomplices - Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi in exchange for guilty pleas and cooperation. However, the pleas were withdrawn by Austin just two days after they were announced, after an outcry from victims' families who demanded full trials.
In Friday's decision, the court also vacated "the military judge's order of November 6, 2024, preventing the secretary of defence's withdrawal from the pretrial agreements." It also bars any future hearings related to the withdrawn plea deals and blocks the military judge “from conducting hearings in which respondents would enter guilty pleas or take any other action pursuant to the withdrawn pretrial agreements.”
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This puts the 9/11 case — arguably the most important terrorism prosecution in US history — back on a trial track after years of legal gridlock, much of it centred around the CIA's use of torture. Mohammed, who claims to have masterminded the 9/11 attacks "from A to Z", was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and transferred to Guantánamo in 2006 after being held in secret CIA prisons, where he was allegedly subjected to torturous, harsh interrogation techniques.
