The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)

Plea deal for 9/ 11 accused revoked, death sentence back on the table

Defence Secy Austin assumes direct oversight, victims’ kin express relief

DEFENSE SECRETARY Lloyd Austin Friday overruled the overseer of the war court at Guantánamo Bay and revoked a plea agreement reached earlier this week with the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and two alleged accomplice­s.

The Pentagon announced the decision with a memorandum relieving the senior Defence Department official responsibl­e for military commission­s of her oversight of the capital case against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and alleged accomplice­s for the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvan­ia field.

The overseer, retired Brig. Gen Susan Escallier, signed a pretrial agreement on Wednesday with Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa alHawsawi that exchanged guilty pleas for sentences of at most life in prison.

In taking away the authority, Austin assumed direct oversight of the case and canceled the agreement, effectivel­y reinstatin­g it as a death- penalty case. He left Escallier in the role of oversight of Guantánamo’s other cases.

Because of the stakes involved, the “responsibi­lity for such a decision should rest with me,” Austin said in an order released Friday night by the Pentagon.

“Effective immediatel­y, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pretrial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024.”

Austin’s decision brought relief to family members of victims who had expressed anger over the deal, but it also left uncertain the next steps of the prosecutio­n over America’s deadliest terrorist attack. Before this week’s developmen­ts, jury selection in the trial was not envisioned to start before 2026, meaning a verdict was likely to be years away.

With the plea deal upended, the military judge, Col Matthew Mccall, is likely to resume hearing testimony next week. He had been working toward deciding a series of challenges brought by defense lawyers, including whether to exclude confession­s that were key to the government’s case.

“This is a really welcome developmen­t,” said Terry Strada, whose husband, Tom Strada, a bond broker, was killed at the World Trade Center.

“I’m happy to see the Pentagon getting involved. And glad the death penalty is back on the table.”