A military court in the United States has ruled against Defence secretary Lloyd Austin‘s attempt to undo the plea deals reached for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two others defendants in the 9/11 attack case, reports the Associate Press. The military appeals court reportedly released its ruling Monday night.
The plea deal allows the three men Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawito to escape the possibility of death penalty by pleading guilty to their role in the 9/11 attacks in the US that shook the world.The deal was reached last summer after two years’ of government-approved negotiations.
Austin had issued a brief order nullifying the plea, within two days of the plea deal. He cited the gravity of the 9/11 attacks as the reason to block the plea that would spare the defendants the possibility of execution.
Defence lawyers argued that Austin had no legal authority to reject the decision already approved by the Guantanamo court’s top authority. They said that the move amounted to unlawful interference in the case.
The military judge hearing the 9/11 case, Air Force Col. Matthew McCall, had agreed that Austin lacked standing to throw out the plea bargains after they were underway. That had set up the Defence Department’s appeal to the military appeals court.
Much of the legal debate has centred on whether they can receive a fair trial after enduring alleged systematic torture by the CIA in the years following 9/11.
Austin can now choose to take his effort to cancel the plea deals to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Currently, there has been no immediate response from the Pentagon regarding any further action.
