U.S. military appeals court denies Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin’s efforts to dismiss possible plea bargain Charged against the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks and two of his co-conspirators.

The agreements could see three men – Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi – plead guilty in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. In exchange, they would be spared the possibility of the death penalty.

A plea hearing for Mohammed, who is accused of plotting the massacre, is scheduled for next week.

The New York Times and the Associated Press both reported late Monday that the military appeals court ruled against Austin.

The decision upheld an earlier ruling by military judge Col. Matthew McCall, who ruled that Austin did not have standing to overturn the plea deal after initially approving it.

News of a possible plea deal emerged months ago. They signaled a possible turn in the long-running and complex case. use of torture Prisoner sweeps were included in the so-called “global war on terror” launched by the United States after the September 11 attacks.

Legal experts say the use of torture – dubbed “enhanced interrogation” by former President George W. Bush’s administration – could prolong or prevent a conviction.

For example, it was revealed that Majid KhanA former al-Qaida courier was tortured at a CIA black site, sparking a public outcry. The CIA denies the accusations, but Khan’s lawyers say he was sexually abused, starved and waterboarded.

In 2021, a military jury of eight officers sentenced Khan to 26 years in prison, the shortest possible sentence. But seven of the eight members of the panel urged the government to show leniency given the nature of the torture suffered by Khan.

Like Khan and other Sept. 11 defendants, Mohammed and two other defendants are being tried by special military commissions established under a World War II-era law that allows foreign defendants to be prosecuted outside the U.S. judicial system.

While Pentagon appointees initially signed the plea deals, Austin sought to rescind them in August amid pressure from lawmakers and victims’ families, who said they were too lenient.

Austin later said he believed Americans should have the chance to complete the trial.

Defense attorneys, however, accused Austin of illegal interference in the case by pushing to withdraw the plea deal.

Despite Monday’s decision, Austin can still appeal the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which could cause further delays.

years of hearings

Pretrial hearings for the three men and the fourth defendant in the case, Ammar al-Baluchi, have lasted more than a decade. Unlike his three co-defendants, Baloch did not agree to negotiate a plea deal.

All four defendants are being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba.

The military prison has become a permanent symbol of abuses in the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks, and dozens of detainees continue to be held there without the rights guaranteed by U.S. law.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration came into office hoping to permanently close the facility, but it remains open as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office on January 20.

The Guantanamo Bay facility once held 800 detainees, and when Biden took office in 2021, it housed about 40 people.

Several people have since been transferred to second countries, four of them in the past two weeks.

One of them includes Tunisian detainee Rida bin Saleh Yazidi. On Monday, the Pentagon announced that he had repatriate to Tunisia.

Despite being granted transfer more than a decade ago, Yazidi remained held in Guantanamo Bay for years without any previous agreement with the Tunisian government.

Yazidi, a suspected member of Al Qaeda, was never charged after being detained in Pakistan near the Afghan border in 2001.

According to the Pentagon, 26 people Still being held at Guantanamo Bay Center. Of those, 14 are eligible to transfer.