Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense for the United States, dismissed a plea bargain that had been earlier reached this week for the supposed architect of the September 11th, 2001 attacks along with a pair of additional defendants. To further be addressed as capital cases, these matters have been recommenced.
In an issued order on Friday evening, Mr. Austin emphasised the magnitude of the decision, determining that he was solely responsible for the acceptance or rejection of the plea deals. Hence, he revoked these agreements.
Merely 48 hours before this decision, the military commission situated in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, disclosed that it had accepted plea arrangements from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, and the two accused collaborators.
The expected entering of the pleas by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi at the same military commission was anticipated as early as the following week. Despite this, the specifics of the original plea bargain were not publicly disclosed by Pentagon officials.
Unidentified officials from Pentagon, as per the claims of The New York Times, narrated the terms as mitigating the likelihood of these men facing the death penalty. In light of this, defense attorneys had proposed that in return for the guilty pleas, life imprisonment sentences be granted to the men, as addressed in correspondences from the federal government to the families of the approximately 3,000 victims who lost their lives immediately on the morning of September 11th.
More than 16 years after the commencement of their prosecution for the attack by al-Qaeda, and exceeding 20 years since the tragic interruption of commercial airliner travels resulting in the mass casualties, a deal was reached for these men to plead guilty. Consequently, this led to years-long United States’ battle against extremist militant groups, reshaping countries in the Middle East.
Terry Strada, the national chairwoman of a group comprising victims’ families titled 9/11 Families United, was attending a hearing for a civil lawsuit in a federal court in Manhattan when she was informed of the plea deal. She conveyed that the primary expectation of numerous families was simply for these men to accept culpability.
“She expressed that she personally desired a court hearing,” she stated. “But instead, the anticipated justice, a fair trial and subsequent punishment, were eliminated.
“Those who orchestrated the attack were feeble then, and they remain feeble now.”
Several family members of the victims have unfortunately passed away whilst waiting for a verdict in the matter, added Ms Strada.
The Centre for Constitutional Rights’ staff attorney, J Wells Dixon, who has advocated for defendants at Guantánamo, as well as other detainees there cleared of any misconduct, had indeed welcomed the plea bargains as the only plausible method for resolving the protracted and legally complex 9/11 lawsuits.
On Friday, Mr Dixon criticised Mr Austin, accusing him of ‘succumbing to political influence and distressing some victim’s family members’ by annulling the plea agreements.” – AP