A plea hearing to enable alleged 9/11 terror attack mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to avoid the death penalty will not go forward Friday, after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decided Thursday to pause the proceedings to allow the court to receive full briefings and hear arguments in the case on an expedited basis.
The court did not rule on whether Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has the power to reverse the plea agreements with Mohammed and other defendants, but instead said it needs more time to make that decision.
The U.S. government had filed a motion earlier this week seeking to stop a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from accepting the plea agreements offered to three men accused of planning the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, including Mohammed.
According to the motion, the plea agreements reached over the summer, which are still under seal, would have the three defendants plead guilty to the seven charges against them for their alleged roles in the terrorist attacks, in exchange for allowing them to avoid the death penalty. The charges include murder, conspiracy and terrorism, as well as an eighth charge of intentionally causing serious bodily injury.
Government attorneys also asked the appeals court to stay the proceedings — including Mohammed’s plea hearing Friday — while the request was being considered.
Soon after the plea agreements were reached, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin tried to revoke them, arguing in a memo that “in light of the significance” of the decision, he alone should have the power to approve the plea deals, rather than the subordinate authority who accepted the deals.
The judge in the 9/11 case and then a military appeals court ruled against Austin and said he had weighed in too late. Austin has since reiterated that he still feels he should be the person who makes the decision on the 9/11 plea deals. On Thursday, during a trip to Germany, Austin was asked again about his decision to revoke the deals.
“I’ve stated where I am on this, and I haven’t changed,” he replied. “We are in the process of appealing that ruling, and since we are appealing, I don’t have any comment.”
There are also two other defendants in the case, but one hasn’t negotiated a plea deal, and the other has been ruled mentally unfit to stand trial.
