Washington — A military appeals court ruled Monday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin could not withdraw plea agreements for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and two other defendants, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News.
Mohammed could plead guilty as early as next week at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, if the Pentagon does not appeal the decision to the federal appeals court in Washington. As of Tuesday morning, the Pentagon had not submitted any filings to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, according to this official.
If the plea agreements do go through, the three men will plead guilty in separate hearings, and in exchange, the death penalty will be taken off the table.
Military prosecutors reached the plea deals with Mohammed and two alleged accomplices, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin ‘Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, in late July following more than two years of negotiations. The agreements were approved by a senior Pentagon official who oversees the military court at Guantanamo Bay.
But days after the deals were announced, Austin said he was rescinding the pretrial agreements. The defense secretary wrote in a memo that “in light of the significance” of the deals, “responsibility for such a decision should rest with me.”
Defense attorneys, meanwhile, argued the plea agreements still stood and questioned whether Austin exercised undue or unlawful command of influence.
Air Force Col. Matthew McCall, the military judge overseeing the case, then ruled in November that the plea deals are valid and enforceable after finding that Austin exceeded his authority when he nullified the agreements.
The three Guantanamo Bay detainees were captured by the U.S. in 2003, but their prosecutions have been mired by years of legal delays over whether evidence obtained during their interrogations at secret CIA prisons could be used in court. They were transferred to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay in 2006 and formally charged in 2008.
Prosecutors told the families of 9/11 victims that the three detainees agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and murder charges in exchange for a life sentence, removing the death penalty as a possible punishment. They also agreed to respond to questions from the family members about their roles in and reasons for conducting the terror attacks.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks that took place 23 years ago, when two hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center in New York City; a third hit the Pentagon outside of Washington, D.C.; and a fourth, bound for Washington, crashed into a Pennsylvania field.
contributed to this report.
