US reaches plea deal with alleged 9/11 mastermind and 2 others

9-11-aftermath With the skeleton of the World Trade Center in the background, New York City firefighters work amid debris after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Mark Lennihan/AP/File

Ecclesiastes 5:8 If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still

Important Takeaways:

  • The US has reached a plea deal with alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants accused of plotting the 2001 terror attacks, according to the Defense Department.
  • The pretrial agreement – reached after 27 months of negotiations – takes the death penalty off the table
  • After beginning negotiations in March 2022, the three men agreed to plead guilty to all charges, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charging sheet
  • “We recognize that the status of the case in general, and this news in particular, will understandably and appropriately elicit intense emotion, and we also realize that the decision to enter into a pre-trial agreement will be met with mixed reactions amongst the thousands of family members who lost loved ones,” prosecutors wrote in the letter. “The decision to enter into a pre-trial agreement after 12 years of pre-trial litigation was not reached lightly; however, it is our collective, reasoned, and good-faith judgment that this resolution is the best path to finality and justice in this case.”
  • The three alleged conspirators will still face a sentencing hearing where the parties will present evidence to argue for an appropriate sentence short of the death penalty. That sentencing hearing will not occur before next summer
  • It’s unclear where Mohammed and his co-defendants will serve out their sentences.
  • The Biden administration has made it a priority to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba where the defendants have been held, repatriating several detainees who were no longer considered significant threats to national security. But dozens of detainees still remain in the facility.

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