The man accused of masterminding the 9/11 attacks and his two co-defendants have agreed to plead guilty, US officials say.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi are expected to give evidence to the military commission at Guantanamo Bay next week.
According to prosecutors cited by the New York Times (NYT), the three defendants agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges in exchange for a life sentence rather than face a death penalty trial in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. .
The defendants have been in US custody since 2003.
Almost 3,000 people died in the September 11 attacks in which suicide bombers hijacked planes and crashed them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon headquarters in Washington and crashed one into a field in Pennsylvania.
Reports of a settlement came through a letter sent to the victims’ families and signed by the Rear Admiral. Aaron C. Rughthe chief prosecutor of the military commissions, and three lawyers from his team, reports the NYT.
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“In exchange for the elimination of the death penalty as a possible punishment, these three defendants agreed to plead guilty to all of the crimes charged, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet,” the letter reads.
It was reported last year. that Mohammed, the main suspected conspirator in the worst terrorist attack in American history, could potentially escape the death penalty thanks to a new plea deal.
Families of 9/11 victims have yet to get justice for the 2001 attacks because the prosecution of the defendants was delayed by questions about whether torture at the hands of the CIA had tainted the evidence against them.
While the defendants are likely to appear in person to plead guilty at Guantanamo Bay next week, they are not likely to be sentenced until late next year, reports NBC News, Sky’s US partner network.
It was Muhammad who presented the idea of an attack on the United States like 9/11. to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the US 9/11 Commission concluded.
Terry Strada, national president of a group of victims’ families called 9/11 Families United, had been in Manhattan federal court for a hearing on one of the many civil lawsuits when she heard news of the plea deal.
He said many families just wanted the men to admit their guilt.
“For me, personally, I wanted to see a trial,” he said. “And they simply took away the justice that I expected, a trial and punishment.
“They were cowards when they planned the attack. And they are cowards today.”
Dozens of relatives of those murdered have died while waiting for the case to be resolved, Strada added.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
