A federal appeals court has thrown out the plea agreement for the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Nearly 25 years after the attacks on America, the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., denied the deal that would have allowed Mohammed and his two co-defendants to avoid the death penalty, The Associated Press reported.
Mohammed was scheduled to enter his plea in January, The Washington Post reported at the time.
It took two years to come to the plea agreement, which was approved by military prosecutors and the Pentagon’s senior Guantanamo Bay official last year and would have given the three men life in prison without parole. They would also be forced to ask questions that families of the victims of 9/11 had, the AP reported.
Mohammed is accused of coming up with the plan that had four airliners hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon.
Two hit the Twin Towers, one was flown into the Pentagon, while the fourth did not hit its intended target and instead was brought down in southwestern Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people died in the 9/11 attacks, The Washington Post reported.
Mohammed was captured in 2003 and was taken to the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2006. He was charged twice at Guantanamo’s special war court, once in 2007 and again in 2011, but there have been what the Post called “bureaucratic and legal battles,” some of which had questions about evidence that was gained through the use of torture.
The Defense Secretary at the time of the deal, Lloyd Austin, pulled the deal, saying that it was the defense secretary’s role to determine the death penalty. But the defendants’ attorneys said it was too late, that the agreement was in effect. A military appeals panel agreed with the defense.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed with Austin’s stance, deciding in a 2-1 ruling on July 11, the AP reported.
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