9/11 plotters agree to plead guilty 20 yrs after Twin Tower attack in US

More than two decades after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and two of his alleged accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and murder charges. The plea deal, announced on Wednesday, aims to avert a death penalty trial at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and offers the defendants life sentences instead.

This decision marks a crucial moment in a case that has been long entangled in legal complexities and delays. According to media reports, prosecutors have emphasised that the agreement seeks to provide ‘finality and justice’ for the nearly 3,000 victims who perished in the attacks on New York City, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field.

The plea deal, reached after 27 months of negotiations, was approved by a senior Pentagon official overseeing the military commissions. The three men have been in US custody since 2003, but their case has been plagued by over a decade of pre-trial proceedings. Central to these proceedings was the question of whether evidence obtained through their torture in secret CIA prisons tainted the case.

A letter from war court prosecutors to the victims’ families detailed the agreement, which requires the defendants to plead guilty to all charged offences, including the murder of the 2,976 individuals listed in the charge sheet. The letter, signed by Rear Admiral Aaron C Rugh, the chief prosecutor for military commissions, and his team, stated that the pleas could be entered in open court as early as next week.

This plea deal sidesteps what was anticipated to be a lengthy 12 to 18-month trial or the risk of a military judge dismissing key confessions. The case has been ongoing since 2012, with recent hearings focusing on the admissibility of evidence and confessions.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, 59, a US-educated engineer and militant, is accused of masterminding the hijacking plot and presenting it to Osama bin Laden in 1996. He, along with Mustafa al-Hawsawi, 55, was captured in Pakistan in March 2003 and subjected to harsh interrogations in CIA prisons before being transferred to Guantánamo in 2006. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was notably waterboarded 183 times.
 

Walid bin Attash, in his mid-40s, is alleged to have been a key figure in training the hijackers and executing missions assigned by Mohammed and bin Laden. The remaining two original defendants, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Ammar al-Baluchi were not part of the plea deal. Bin al-Shibh was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial, while al-Baluchi, 46, may face trial separately.

The plea agreement was reached after significant hurdles, including a failed negotiation over the defendants’ conditions of imprisonment. They had sought assurances against solitary confinement and for improved family contact, which the Biden administration ultimately did not grant.

The agreement has drawn mixed reactions from the victims’ families. Some feel relieved that the case will be resolved, while others are disappointed by the absence of a death penalty trial. This process, known as restorative justice, enables families to submit questions to the defendants and receive answers by the end of 2024.

Admiral Rugh and his team acknowledged the difficulty of their decision, stating that after 12 years of pretrial litigation, the resolution represents the best path to justice and closure.