Pentagon to appeal ruling allowing 9/11 defendants to avoid death penalty

2024-11-09 21:04:19, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Defense Department will appeal the validity of a military judge's ruling on plea deals by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and two other defendants, a Defense official said. defense on Saturday.

The judge's ruling last week overturned Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's order to throw out the deals and concluded that the plea deals were valid.

The Pentagon will also seek a postponement of hearings where the defendants plead to the charges, according to the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss legal matters and spoke on condition of anonymity. Attorney General Aaron Rugh sent a letter Friday to the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks informing them of the decision.

The decision by Judge Matthew McCall, Air Force Col., allowed the three 9/11 defendants to plead guilty in the military courtroom located at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The plea of ??guilty by the defendants Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Atash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi means avoiding the death penalty.

The guilty plea would be a key step toward closing the lengthy and fraught legal case against suspects Mohammed, Walia al-d bin Attash and MustafHawsawi, in connection with the attacks that left an estimated 3,000 dead.

Prosecutors had negotiated the deals with defense attorneys under government auspices, and the top military commission official at Guantanamo had approved the deals. However, the deals were immediately criticized by Republican lawmakers and others when they became public over the summer.

A few days later, Secretary Austin issued an order saying he was canceling them. He said plea deals in one of the worst crimes ever committed on American soil to avoid the death penalty were an important step that should be decided only by the defense chief.

The judge then ruled that Secretary Austin lacked the legal authority to reject plea deals.

The deals, and the Defense Secretary's attempt to overturn them, have produced one of the most difficult episodes in a case that has been beset by delays and legal difficulties.

The families of some of the victims of the 9/11 attacks are confident that prosecutions will continue until trial and possible death sentences. However, legal experts say that it is not clear that this can ever happen./ VOA