9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s plea deal, which would have eliminated the possibility of the death penalty and contributed to the resolution of the protracted legal battle surrounding his case, was rejected by a US appeals court on Friday.
Last year, then-US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin tried to revoke the deal after it infuriated several relatives of the 2001 attack victims, who felt that the accused should be put on trial for the benefit of the American people as well as themselves.
Judges Patricia Millett and Neomi Rao ruled that Austin “acted within the bounds of his legal authority, and we decline to second-guess his judgment.”
In late July of last year, plea agreements with Mohammed and two suspected collaborators, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, were made public.
