The US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Friday cancelled a plea agreement for the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, thus restoring the possibility of his being sentenced to death along with two others in accordance with Associated Press.
“Given the weightiness of this decision, it is my finding that I am entitled to take a position on consent to pleas,” said Austin in a release released on Friday night invalidating the agreements.
This move was made several days after the Guantanamo Bay Military Commission declared they had reached an agreement with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as well as his alleged accomplices Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. In accordance with these agreements, all three will have faced life imprisonment terms.
A statement sent to relatives of nearly 3000 victims by letters claimed that accused would receive life sentences under a plea agreement causing anger among some of them. Many were unhappy about the deal because it precluded full trials and capital punishments. The Republicans instantly held Biden’s administration responsible in relation to this pact while White House denied having any information regarding such arrangement.
Mohammed and other defendants expected to formally enter pleas next week under their proposed deal. Since then, however, there has been little development in its cases mainly due to continuous pre-trial hearings and preliminary court actions since 2008 up until now against five accused persons involved in attacks occurring on September 11th as per US military commission.
