Latest news with #militarycommission
Washington Post
4 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
A court called off a key 9/11 suspect's plea deal. Here's where the case stands
NEW YORK — The United States' long legal case against accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed remains in limbo after an appeals court this week scrapped a plea deal that the government had negotiated but had later withdrawn. Essentially, the ruling leaves the case on track for trial before a military commission. It is unclear when that might happen.
Associated Press
4 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
A court called off a key 9/11 suspect's plea deal. Here's where the case stands
NEW YORK (AP) — The United States' long legal case against accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed remains in limbo after an appeals court this week scrapped a plea deal that the government had negotiated but had later withdrawn. Essentially, the ruling leaves the case on track for trial before a military commission. It is unclear when that might happen. Here's what to know about the case and how it got here: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is accused mastermind of 9/11 Mohammed is accused of developing and directing al-Qaida's plot to crash hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. Another of the hijacked planes flew into a field in Pennsylvania. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed in one of the deadliest attacks ever on the United States. Mohammed was arrested in 2003 in Pakistan and eventually taken to the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. At the time, it was where the U.S. held hundreds of men captured in President George W. Bush's 'war on terror.' Military prosecutors filed charges in 2008 against Mohammed and some co-defendants. After an Obama-era plan to try them in a civilian court in New York collapsed, the case remained with the military commission. The case dragged on through years of legal and logistical challenges. A major point of contention has been how much the evidence and case have been tainted by the men's torture while in CIA custody during the first years after their capture. Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times. The plea deal called for life in prison Military prosecutors and defense lawyers began plea talks several years ago. Last year, Mohammed and two others agreed to plead guilty, under an agreement that would have led to life in prison instead of a potential death penalty. The deal also would have required the men to answer questions posed by Sept. 11 victims' relatives. Military prosecutors called the arrangement 'the best path to finality and justice.' Some 9/11 families also saw the deal as the best hope for bringing the painful case to a conclusion and getting some answers from the defendants. But other victims' relatives said a trial was the right way to get justice and information, and some saw the plea deal as capitulation. Republican lawmakers also criticized the agreement, negotiated during Democratic President Joe Biden's administration. Defense secretary withdrew the plea deal Then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin soon rescinded the deal, saying that victims' relatives, U.S. troops and the American public ' deserve the opportunity ' to see military commission trials play out. Defense attorneys and the government wrangled in various courts over whether Austin was legally able to scrap the deal. It was on-again, off-again for months. A panel of appeals judges put it on hold in January and then, on Friday, issued 2-1 ruling saying that Austin had the authority to rescind the agreement. The order bars the military judge from taking any guilty pleas under the now-undone deal. The case could be headed to pretrial stage It is not clear whether defense lawyers plan to appeal. A message seeking comment was sent Saturday to Mohammed's attorneys. Without a plea deal, the case would once again be back in the pretrial stage within the military commission system, with the legal and logistical complications that it has faced. Questions about whether the men's torture would prevent the use of evidence, including statements they made, are yet to be resolved.
Al Jazeera
5 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
US court nixes guilty plea for alleged 9/11 attacks mastermind
Washington, DC – An appeals court in the United States has validated the decision of former Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin to withdraw a plea deal for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001. A panel of judges at the Washington, DC-based federal court of appeals ruled on Friday that Austin 'had full legal authority' to revoke the plea agreement for Mohammed and two other defendants. That deal would have spared Mohammed the possibility of the death penalty in exchange for a plea of guilty. Friday's decision will prolong a decades-long legal saga for Mohammed, who has been imprisoned at a notorious detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since he was captured in Pakistan in 2003. Austin revoked the deal in August of last year, saying that the US public and victims' families 'deserve the opportunity to see' the case brought to trial before a military commission — an alternative justice system established for Guantanamo detainees. But any trial is likely to be fraught with challenges — including questions about evidence obtained by torture — and will take years, extending the legal limbo for the Guantanamo detainees. A military judge reinstated the plea agreements in November, and a military appeals court affirmed the decision one month later. The administration of former President Joe Biden then took the case to a federal civilian court of appeals. Lawyers for defendants like Mohammed argued that Austin was too late to revoke the agreements, parts of which were already materialising. But the court of appeals in Washington, DC, ultimately ruled that Austin was right to wait for the outcome of the plea negotiations before revoking the deals. Writing on behalf of the court's majority, Judges Patricia Millett and Neomi Rao said that preventing the withdrawal of the deal would have sent the message that plea agreements are 'irrevocable upon signing'. 'The Secretary acted within the bounds of his legal authority, and we decline to second-guess his judgment,' the ruling read. However, dissenting Judge Robert Wilkins decried the decision as revoking a contract that was already in effect. He likened nixing the plea agreement to refusing to pay a painter who has already finished parts of the work stipulated in a home repairs contract. For years, rights groups have called for shutting down the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, known as Gitmo. The prison opened in 2002 to house prisoners from the so-called 'war on terror' following the attacks in the US on September 11, 2001. Detainees were arrested in countries across the world on suspicions of ties to al-Qaeda and other groups. Many endured torture at secret detention facilities, known as black sites, before being transferred to Guantanamo. At Gitmo, civil liberty advocates say detainees had few legal rights. Even those cleared for release through the military commissions remained imprisoned for years, with no recourse to challenge their detention. The detention facility once housed nearly 800 Muslim men and teenage boys. Now only 15 prisoners remain at the prison; three are eligible for release.
