A Military Appeals Court Has Ruled Against Defense Secretary’s Effort to Throw Out Plea Deals for 9/11 Attacks Defendants
A military appeals court has ruled against Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s effort to throw out the plea deals reached for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants in the 9/11 attacks. The decision means that the three men will proceed with their agreements to plead guilty in exchange for being spared the possibility of the death penalty.
The plea deals were reached after two years of government-approved negotiations and were announced last summer. Supporters of the agreements see them as a way to resolve the legally troubled case against the men at the U.S. military commission at Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had cited the gravity of the 9/11 attacks in saying that as defense secretary, he should decide on any plea agreements that would spare the defendants the possibility of execution. However, defense lawyers argued that Austin had no legal authority to reject a decision already approved by the Guantanamo court’s top authority, and 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, setting up the Defense Department’s appeal to the military appeals court.
In other news, the Pentagon announced the repatriation of a Tunisian man who was one of the longest-held detainees at the Guantanamo military prison. Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi was returned to Tunisia after being approved for transfer over a decade ago, leaving 26 men still at the prison.