US military court clears way for possible plea deals for 9/11 suspects

A United States subject appeals tribunal has denied an effort by Pentagon main Lloyd Austin to propulsion retired imaginable plea deals for the alleged mastermind of the attacks connected September 11, 2001, and his 2 co-conspirators.

The deals could spot the 3 men — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi — plead blameworthy to the attacks, which killed astir 3,000 people. In exchange, they would beryllium spared the anticipation of the decease penalty.

A plea proceeding for Mohammed, who is accused of orchestrating the killings, is acceptable for adjacent week.

The New York Times and Associated Press some reported connected Monday nighttime that the subject appeals tribunal had ruled against Austin.

The determination upheld a erstwhile judgement from a subject judge, Colonel Matthew McCall, who ruled that Austin lacked the lasting to propulsion retired the plea bargains pursuing their archetypal approval.

News of the imaginable plea deals emerged respective months ago. They signalled a imaginable off-ramp for a lawsuit agelong analyzable by the use of torture connected prisoners swept up during the alleged “global warfare connected terror”, launched by the US successful the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

Legal experts person said that the usage of torture — dubbed “enhanced interrogation” by the medication of erstwhile President George W Bush — could prolong oregon forestall a conviction.

For instance, revelations that Majid Khan, a erstwhile al-Qaeda courier, had been tortured astatine a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) achromatic tract prompted nationalist outcry. The CIA denied the allegations, but Khan’s lawyers described him suffering intersexual abuse, starvation and waterboarding.

In 2021, a subject jury, composed of 8 officers, sentenced Khan to 26 years successful prison, the shortest condemnation possible. But 7 of the 8 members connected the sheet urged the authorities to connection clemency, fixed the quality of Khan’s torture.

Like Khan and different September 11 defendants, Mohammed and the 2 different defendants are being tried by a peculiar subject committee acceptable up nether World War II-era laws that let for the prosecution of overseas defendants extracurricular of the US justness system.

While a Pentagon appointee had initially signed disconnected connected the plea deals, Austin sought to revoke the agreements successful August amid unit from lawmakers and household members of victims, who deemed the deals excessively lax.

Austin aboriginal said helium believed Americans deserved the accidental to spot the trials through.

Defence lawyers, however, charged that Austin’s propulsion to revoke the plea deals represented unlawful interference successful the case.

Despite Monday’s decision, Austin tin inactive entreaty the lawsuit to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which could origin further delays.

Years of hearings

Pre-trial hearings for the 3 men successful the lawsuit and a 4th defendant, Ammar al-Baluchi, person stretched for much than a decade. Unlike his 3 co-defendants, al-Baluchi has not agreed to plea-deal negotiations.

All 4 of the accused person been held astatine the Guantanamo Bay detention centre successful Cuba.

The subject situation has go a lasting awesome of US abuses successful the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, with dozens of detainees continuing to beryllium held determination without the rights guaranteed nether US law.

The medication of US President Joe Biden had entered bureau hoping to adjacent the installation for good, but it remains unfastened arsenic President-elect Donald Trump prepares to instrumentality bureau connected January 20.

Once holding 800 detainees, the Guantanamo Bay installation housed astir 40 radical erstwhile Biden took bureau successful 2021.

Several person since been transferred to 2nd countries, including 4 successful the past 2 weeks.

One of those includes Tunisian detainee Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi. On Monday, the Pentagon announced helium had been repatriated to Tunisia.

Despite being approved for a transportation much than a decennary ago, al-Yazidi was kept successful the Guantanamo installation for years, arsenic nary statement had antecedently been reached with Tunisia’s government.

Al-Yazidi, a suspected subordinate of al-Qaeda, had ne'er been charged aft being detained successful Pakistan adjacent the Afghan borderline successful 2001.

According to the Pentagon, 26 people stay incarcerated successful the Guantanamo Bay centre. Of that group, 14 are eligible for a transfer.

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies