No relief for 9/11 masterminds: US' Pentagon withdraws plea deals for case's suspects

In an important update on the 9/11 terrorism case, the US Department of Defence, Pentagon, announced on Friday that it has revoked plea deals with several key suspects that would have spared them from the death penalty. 

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has taken direct control of the case, relieving Susan Escallier, the official overseeing the Pentagon's Guantanamo war court, of her authority to negotiate pre-trial agreements. In a memo, Austin stated, "Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements."

This decision comes in the wake of intense criticism from Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who expressed strong opposition to the plea deals.

The announcement follows just two days after when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 attacks, along with two accomplices, reportedly agreed to plead guilty. The plea deals were understood to involve guilty pleas in exchange for the removal of the death penalty as a potential sentence.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the most notorious inmate at Guantanamo Bay, a facility established in 2002 by then-President George W. Bush to detain foreign militant suspects following the attacks. Alongside Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin 'Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi were also involved in the plea negotiations, according to a Pentagon statement.

The three men were initially charged together and arraigned on June 5, 2008, with a subsequent arraignment occurring on May 5, 2012. The Pentagon's latest move marks a pivotal moment in the long-running legal proceedings surrounding the September 11 attacks.