US scraps plea deal with three 9/11 suspects
1. "Effective immediately, I hereby withdraw from three pre-trial agreements...," Austin writes in memo
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday revoked plea deals that had been agreed to earlier this week with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks, and two accomplices, who are held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that plea deals had been entered into but did not provide details. A US official indicated that the deals likely involved guilty pleas in exchange for removing the death penalty as a possible sentence.
However, on Friday, Austin removed Susan Escallier, who oversees the Pentagon's Guantanamo war court, from her authority to enter into pre-trial agreements in the case and assumed the responsibility himself.
"Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements...," Austin wrote in a memo.
Many Republican lawmakers, including House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, strongly criticized the plea deals.
Mohammed is the most well-known inmate at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, which was established in 2002 by then-US President George W. Bush to house foreign militant suspects following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Mohammed is accused of masterminding the plot to fly hijacked commercial passenger aircraft into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon. The 9/11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and led to a two-decade-long war in Afghanistan.
Plea deals had also been reached by two other detainees: Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin 'Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi.
