A military appeals court has overturned Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s attempt to void plea agreements for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants in the 9/11 attacks. This ruling revives the deals that would see the three men plead guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.
The decision, released Monday night according to a U.S. official, puts back on course agreements reached after two years of government-approved negotiations between military prosecutors and defense attorneys. These agreements would allow the defendants to plead guilty to their roles in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, a turning point in U.S. history that led to military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The plea deals are seen by supporters as a means to resolve the legally complex case against the men, which has been stalled for over a decade at the U.S. military commission at Guantanamo Bay. Pretrial hearings have been lengthy, with a significant portion focused on the potential tainting of evidence due to the torture the defendants endured during early CIA custody.
However, Defense Secretary Austin had moved to nullify these agreements shortly after they were announced, asserting that his office should be the final authority on deals that would remove the death penalty from consideration. Defense lawyers contested that Austin had no legal right to reject the plea bargains and that his intervention was unlawful.
The military judge overseeing the case agreed with the defense, leading to the Defense Department's appeal to the military appeals court, which has now ruled against Austin. He now has the option to escalate the matter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
In a separate development, the Pentagon announced the repatriation of Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi, a long-held Guantanamo detainee, back to Tunisia. This transfer leaves 26 men at the prison, a significant decrease from its peak of 700 detainees.
Al-Yazidi’s repatriation is part of ongoing efforts by the Biden administration to reduce the population at Guantanamo, transferring three other detainees out this month alone. Of the remaining individuals, 14 are awaiting transfer to other countries as the U.S. continues to search for willing nations to receive them.
The U.S. military has stated that it worked in coordination with Tunisian authorities for the "responsible transfer" of al-Yazidi. He had been held at the facility since 2002. Currently, seven Guantanamo detainees, including Mohammed and his co-defendants, face active cases, while two others have been convicted and sentenced.
