Latest news with #LloydAustin
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Appellate court okays cancellation of 9/11 plotters' plea deals
July 12 (UPI) -- A divided federal appellate court panel canceled plea deals for three defendants who are accused to plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed 2,976 in 2001. A three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed by a 2-1 decision that former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin legally rescinded existing plea deals with the three defendants. The defendants include alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, NPR reported on Friday. The three defendants are being held at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where a military court last summer announced the plea deals last summer. Austin withdrew the plea agreements two days later, which raised the question of whether or not he had the authority to do so. The plea agreement would have spared the three men from execution and instead would have sentenced each to life in prison. Austin wanted the case to continue with a trial that included the potential for the death penalty. The cases against the three men have been ongoing for more than 20 years amid a slew of pretrial hearings. Military prosecutors determined a plea deal was the best way to resolve the matter. A U.S. military court had okayed the plea agreements, and defense attorneys argued Austin lacked the authority to negate them because he didn't like the terms. The federal appellate court on Friday ruled Austin had the authority to terminate the plea agreements. Defense attorneys have the option of appealing the decision to a full panel of the federal appellate court in the nation's capital or the Supreme Court.
UPI
13-07-2025
- Politics
- UPI
Appellate court okays cancellation of 9/11 plotters' plea deals
A federal appellate court on Friday affirmed former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had the authority to cancel plea agreements for three defendants accused of plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Photo by Activedia/Pixabay July 12 (UPI) -- A divided federal appellate court panel canceled plea deals for three defendants who are accused to plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed 2,976 in 2001. A three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed by a 2-1 decision that former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin legally rescinded existing plea deals with the three defendants. The defendants include alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, NPR reported on Friday. The three defendants are being held at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where a military court last summer announced the plea deals last summer. Austin withdrew the plea agreements two days later, which raised the question of whether or not he had the authority to do so. The plea agreement would have spared the three men from execution and instead would have sentenced each to life in prison. Austin wanted the case to continue with a trial that included the potential for the death penalty. The cases against the three men have been ongoing for more than 20 years amid a slew of pretrial hearings. Military prosecutors determined a plea deal was the best way to resolve the matter. A U.S. military court had okayed the plea agreements, and defense attorneys argued Austin lacked the authority to negate them because he didn't like the terms. The federal appellate court on Friday ruled Austin had the authority to terminate the plea agreements. Defense attorneys have the option of appealing the decision to a full panel of the federal appellate court in the nation's capital or the Supreme Court.
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Court rules former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had authority to throw out plea deals for 9/11 alleged conspirators
A federal appeals court determined that former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin 'indisputably' had the authority to cancel plea agreements made last year with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants accused of plotting the 9/11 terror attack. The decision overturns a ruling by a military judge last year that plea agreements setting aside the possibility of the death penalty for the men were 'valid and enforceable,' after Austin revoked the deals months before. 'The Secretary of Defense indisputably had legal authority to withdraw from the agreements; the plain and unambiguous text of the pretrial agreements shows that no performance of promises had begun,' court documents outlining the decision of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals said. Wells Dixon, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights who previously represented another Guantanamo detainee, Majid Khan, criticized the court ruling on Friday, saying it will 'ensure nothing but the continued lack of justice and accountability for anyone involved in the military commissions.' 'The Biden administration's effort to invalidate the plea agreements that would resolve in lasting convictions and life sentences for the 9/11 defendants was inexplicable,' Dixon said. 'It was a painful betrayal of the 9/11 victim family members, because we know after more than two decades of litigation at Guantanamo, and we know from experience, that the 9/11 cases will never be resolved through a contested trial.' 'Putting aside the fantasy that this case is ever going to go to trial — assuming it does go to trial and that there's a conviction — you get to sentencing, and they have a right to put forward evidence … that they were tortured. That's never going to happen,' Dixon added. The military trial against Mohammed and the other alleged 9/11 conspirators has been delayed for years as the US government tried to determine how to handle the issue of the torture of individuals at CIA prisons, and the question of whether evidence obtained through torture was admissible in court. Dixon previously told CNN that the government is 'unwilling' to admit evidence in trial 'about the defendants' torture.' The pretrial agreements were announced last summer after 27 months of negotiation, and took the possibility of the death sentence off the table for Mohammed, Mustafa al Hawsawi, and Walid Bin 'Attash. They required that the accused plead guilty to all charges against them and would undergo a public sentencing hearing in which they would be required to answer questions by family members and survivors of the September 11 attack. The agreements drew fierce backlash, both politically and from some groups representing 9/11 victims and their families who had pushed for the death penalty. But just days after the news of the agreements was publicized, Austin revoked them, saying the final decision should be left to him and not the official overseeing the military courts at Guantanamo Bay, Brig. Gen. Susan Escallier. Austin also withdrew Escallier's authority over the cases. Austin's revocation kicked off a months-long legal battle. Attorneys representing the three conspirators called Austin's actions corrupt and unprecedented, and argued that it was not legal due to a regulation in the military's own Manual for Military Commissions, which says a pretrial agreement can only be withdrawn before the accused begins 'performance of promises' or if they do not hold up their end of the agreement. A defense attorney for Mohammed argued in August last year that his client had already begun 'very important, substantive, specific performance,' and therefore Austin's actions were too late. The military judge overseeing the trials of the three men appeared to agree, ruling in November that the plea agreements were 'valid and enforceable.' A defense official told CNN at the time that the judge, Col. Matthew McCall, rules that not only are they legal and enforceable but 'that [Austin] was too late in doing that.' A military appeals court also ruled against Austin in December. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling on Friday that Austin had 'full legal authority' to withdraw from the pretrial agreements, and said there 'no prior performance of promises contained in those agreements prevented the Secretary's withdrawal.' CNN's Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.
Arab News
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
US appeals court scraps 9/11 mastermind's plea deal
WASHINGTON: A US appeals court on Friday scrapped 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's plea agreement that would have taken the death penalty off the table and helped conclude the long-running legal saga surrounding his case. The agreement had sparked anger among some relatives of victims of the 2001 attacks, and then-US defense secretary Lloyd Austin moved to cancel it last year, saying that both they and the American public deserved to see the defendants stand trial. Austin 'acted within the bounds of his legal authority, and we decline to second-guess his judgment,' judges Patricia Millett and Neomi Rao wrote. Plea deals with Mohammed as well as two alleged accomplices — Walid bin Attash and Mustafa Al-Hawsawi — were announced in late July last year. The decision appeared to have moved their cases toward resolution after years of being bogged down in pre-trial maneuverings while the defendants remained held at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba. But Austin withdrew the agreements two days after they were announced, saying the decision should be up to him, given its significance. He subsequently said that 'the families of the victims, our service members and the American public deserve the opportunity to see military commission trials carried out in this case.' A military judge ruled in November that the deals were valid and binding, but the government appealed that decision. The appeals court judges on Friday vacated 'the military judge's order of November 6, 2024, preventing the secretary of defense's withdrawal from the pretrial agreements.' And they prohibited the military judge 'from conducting hearings in which respondents would enter guilty pleas or take any other action pursuant to the withdrawn pretrial agreements.' Much of the legal jousting surrounding the 9/11 defendants' cases has focused on whether they could be tried fairly after having undergone torture at the hands of the CIA — a thorny issue that the plea agreements would have avoided. Mohammed was regarded as one of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's most trusted lieutenants before his March 2003 capture in Pakistan. He then spent three years in secret CIA prisons before arriving at Guantanamo in 2006. The trained engineer — who has said he masterminded the 9/11 attacks 'from A to Z' — was involved in a string of major plots against the United States, where he attended university. The United States used Guantanamo, an isolated naval base, to hold militants captured during the 'War on Terror' that followed the September 11 attacks in a bid to keep the defendants from claiming rights under US law. The facility held roughly 800 prisoners at its peak, but they have since slowly been sent to other countries. A small fraction of that number remains.
Deccan Herald
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Deccan Herald
Divided US appeals court rejects plea deal for accused September 11 attacks mastermind
Those plea agreements had been offered last year and accepted by the official who oversees the Pentagon's Guantanamo war court, only to be revoked in August by then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after Republican lawmakers attacked the agreements.
