Three men accused of masterminding the 9/11 plot have reached a plea deal

Three men accused of plotting the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks have entered into pre-trial plea agreements, the US Department of Defense said.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi have been held at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for years without trial.

According to American media, the men will plead guilty so that the prosecutor agrees not to seek the death penalty.

Terms of the settlement agreement have not been released.

About 3,000 people in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania were killed in al-Qaeda attacks, which sparked the “War on Terror” and the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.

It was the worst attack on US soil since the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where 2,400 people were killed.

This agreement was announced for the first time in a letter sent by prosecutors to the victim’s family, according to The New York Times.

“In order for the death penalty to be issued as a possible punishment, these three suspects have agreed to confess to all the charges against them, including killing the 2,976 people on the list of charges,” said the chief prosecutor’s letter. Rear Admiral Aaron Rugh.

They are accused of a series of crimes, including attacks on civilians, killings in violation of the laws of war, carjacking and terrorism.

They are expected to formally submit their applications to the court from next week, the Times reported.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammad is widely regarded as the mastermind of the attacks, in which hijackers hijacked passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington.

A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought.

Mohammad, a US-educated engineer, was arrested along with Hawsawi in Pakistan in March 2003.

Prosecutors argue that he brought his idea of ​​hijacking and flying planes into US facilities to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who later helped recruit and train other hijackers.

He underwent “enhanced interrogation techniques”, including “waterboarding” – simulated drowning – at least 183 times before the practice was banned by the US government.

In his letter, Admiral Rugh wrote that the decision to accept the agreement “was not reached lightly” and was “on the best path … to justice”.

In September, the Biden administration reportedly scrapped the terms of a plea deal with five men held at a US Navy base in Cuba, including Mohammad.

They are said to have wanted assurances from the president that they will not be locked up in isolation and that they will also receive trauma treatment.

The White House National Security Council said that the President’s office was informed on Wednesday about the agreement and had no role in the negotiations of the compensation agreement.

Jim Smith, whose wife died in the attack, told the newspaper The New York Post that the families of the victims had “waited for 23 years for our day in court to document what these animals did to our loved ones”.

“They took that opportunity for us,” he said, adding that they should receive a “high penalty” for their roles.

Republicans were also quick to attack the Biden administration for making a deal with the defendants.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell condemned the move as “overriding the government’s responsibility to protect America and provide justice”.

“Worse than negotiating with terrorists is negotiating with them once they have been arrested,” he said.