Aug. 3 (UPI) — Three accused terrorists being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, won’t avoid the death penalty for their alleged contributions to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Friday night revoked the plea deal announced Wednesday that would have spared the three defendants from the death penalty
Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one of the defendants whose plea deal Austin revoked.
The other two defendants whose plea agreements Austin withdrew are Walid Bin ‘Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam Al Hawasawi.
Austin in a memo issued Friday withdrew Brig. Gen. Susan Escallier’s authority to agree to pretrial agreements with the accused terrorists.
He said the “responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior convening authority under the Military Commission Act of 2009.”
“Effective immediately, I hereby withdraw your authority in the above-referenced case to enter into a pretrial agreement and reserve such authority to myself,” Austin said, and withdrew the three plea agreements that Escallier signed on Wednesday.
News of the plea agreements drew strong rebukes from many Republicans and Democrats in U.S. Congress, and groups that represent the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed more than 3,000.
“These plea deals should not perpetuate a system of closed-door agreements where crucial information is hidden without giving the families of the victims the chance to learn the full truth,” Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice, said in a statement.
Prosecutors weighed making plea agreements with the accused terrorists for two years to prevent a long trial that would have involved many challenges to evidence allegedly obtained through torture while the defendants were held at CIA prisons.
The trials for the defendants were to begin on Jan. 11, 2021, but two judges have resigned and the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the trials.
