New York
United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has revoked plea deals reached with the man accused of masterminding the September 11, 2001, attacks and two accomplices, just two days after the announcement of an agreement that reportedly would have taken the death penalty off the table.
The deals, which involved the man regarded as one of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s most trusted lieutenants, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, were revoked on Friday after angering some relatives of the victims.
Austin also relieved Susan Escallier, who oversees the Pentagon’s Guantanamo war court, of her authority to enter into pre-trial agreements in the case and took on the responsibility himself.
“I have determined that, in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused … responsibility for such a decision should rest with me,” Austin said in a memorandum addressed to Escallier.
“I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024 in the above-referenced case,” the memo said.
The Pentagon announced the plea deals on Wednesday but did not elaborate on details.
The New York Times reported Mohammed and the accomplices, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi, had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for a life sentence, instead of facing a trial that could lead to their executions.
Mohammed is the best-known inmate at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, which was set up in 2002 by then-US President George W Bush following the attacks.
