Washington, DC – A recent ruling by a military appeals court has overturned Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s attempt to dismiss plea deals made for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants involved in the 9/11 attacks, a source revealed. This decision reinstates the agreements that would see the three men plead guilty to their involvement in one of the most devastating attacks on American soil, sparing them from the death penalty.

The attacks orchestrated by al-Qaida on September 11, 2001, resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 individuals and were a catalyst for American military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of the war on terror initiated by the George W. Bush administration.

After two years of negotiations, military prosecutors and defense attorneys reached these plea agreements for Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the attacks, and his co-defendants. The deals, announced last summer, seek to address the lengthy legal proceedings surrounding the case at the U.S. military commission held at Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba. Pretrial hearings for Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi have been ongoing for over a decade.

The focus of pretrial discussions has centered on how the alleged torture of the men during their time in CIA custody could impact the validity of the evidence in the case. Amidst this legal battle, Defense Secretary Austin issued an order nullifying the plea deals, citing the gravity of the attacks as his justification for intervening in the process.

Disagreements arose when defense lawyers argued that Austin did not possess the legal authority to reject agreements that had already been approved by the highest authority at the Guantanamo court. The military judge overseeing the 9/11 case, Air Force Col. Matthew McCall, supported this stance, leading to the Defense Department’s appeal to the military appeals court.

Austin now has the opportunity to escalate his efforts to invalidate the plea deals by appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Meanwhile, the Pentagon confirmed the repatriation of Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi, one of the longest-held detainees at Guantanamo, to Tunisia, reducing the prison’s population to 26 individuals.

The Biden administration has faced pressure from advocacy groups to release remaining Guantanamo detainees without charges, with recent transfers marking progress towards this goal. Collaborating with various countries to ensure the responsible transfer of detainees has been a key focus for the U.S. military in this ongoing process.