Plea deal back on the table for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad

Plea deals for accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and 2 others are backmost connected the table, according to aggregate reports.

Muhammad, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi agreed successful July to plead guilty for their roles successful the panic onslaught successful speech for not facing the decease penalty. But Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revoked the plea deals days later, saying the men deserved to look decease punishment trials.

“I person agelong believed that the families of the victims, our work members, and the American nationalist merit the opportunity to spot subject commissions, committee trials carried out,” Austin said successful August erstwhile speaking for the archetypal clip connected his determination to propulsion retired the deals.

But Austin’s authorization to marque specified a determination was rapidly questioned, and a subject justice agreed this week that helium had overstepped his power. The bid from Air Force Col. Matthew McCall has not yet been officially announced, but was reported Thursday greeting by The Associated Press.

The prosecutions of Muhammad, bin Attash and al-Hawsawi have been troubled for years. The 3 men person been detained astatine Guantanamo Bay for much than a decade, but earlier they arrived they were held and tortured astatine CIA concealed prisons.

If the 3 men were to beryllium convicted and sentenced astatine trial, their cases would apt beryllium appealed for decades. That could theoretically adjacent pb to merchandise connected entreaty due to the fact that they were denied accepted rights of the U.S. judicial system.

Still, galore families of the 9/11 victims person insisted connected decease punishment trials for the men, with 9/11 Families United seat Terry Strada penning successful August they “deserve nary mercy.”

Muhammad, 59, is considered the “principal architect” of the 9/11 plot and was adjacent with Osama bin Laden. He was captured successful a March 2003 raid successful Pakistan.

Bin Attash was formally charged with grooming aggregate 9/11 hijackers up of the attack, portion Al-Hawsawi helped grip al-Qaeda’s finances arsenic the radical planned 9/11. Both men were besides captured successful Pakistan successful 2003.

Videos from the CIA interrogations of the 3 men were destroyed by the agency.

With News Wire Services