By pleading guilty from Guantanamo prison, the alleged perpetrator of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States could avoid the death penalty. American justice will have to decide.
A US court temporarily blocked alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from pleading guilty, which would have allowed him to avoid the death penalty, following a last-minute intervention by the Biden administration .
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, around 60 years old, from Pakistani Baluchistan is accused of having planned the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks which left nearly 3,000 dead on September 11, 2001. He was due to plead guilty this Friday before a military court in Guantanamo, the American naval base in Cuba. A base where he was incarcerated from 2006 three years after his arrest in Pakistan.
However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled Thursday that this was not possible. The court said its decision was only temporary, adding that a final decision would be made once the arguments had been fully considered.
The move comes after months of failed attempts by the Biden administration to block the deal.
Initially, the current U.S. government supported the plea deal for Mohammed and two of his co-defendants, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, which took more than two years to negotiate.
Under the terms of the deal, the three men agreed to plead guilty to 2,976 murder charges in exchange for life sentences. They also promised to answer questions that family members of the victims still have.
A clause in Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s deal also prevents prosecutors from seeking the death penalty once he pleads guilty, even if the deal is later canceled.
Last August, the American Minister of Defense, Lloyd Austin, reversed the agreement which had been approved by his ministry. He argued that the crimes of 9/11 were so serious that the death penalty should not be ruled out.
After a Guantanamo judge and a military review panel rejected Mr. Austin’s intervention, the U.S. government then took the case to the appeals court on Tuesday.
Military prosecutors told families of 9/11 victims that plea deal was “the best path to finality and justice”.
The torture of detainees at Guantanamo means that some of Mohammed and his co-defendant’s statements may be unusable in court.
More than 23 years after one of the deadliest days in U.S. history, victims’ families are divided over how best to proceed.
Ken Fairben, whose only child, paramedic Keith Fairben, died in the attacks, wanted the plea deal implemented.
“Honestly, I thought we were going to have a little bit – I don’t like the word ‘closure’ – but a little bit of forward movement, something definitive.”he declared.
“It’s so frustrating. It’s absolutely heartbreaking.”he added, specifying that he was speaking only in his own name.
However, Gordon Haberman, whose daughter, Andrea, was killed at the World Trade Center, wants the defendants to stand trial.
“If it leads to a proper trial for these people, I’m in favor of it.”he declared.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has scheduled the next steps for Jan. 22, meaning the proceedings will continue under Donald Trump’s administration, which begins two days earlier.