A civilian court of appeals says ex-Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin ‘had full legal authority’ to withdraw the plea agreement.Washington, DC – An appeals court in the United States has validated the decision of former Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin to withdraw a plea deal for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001.
A panel of judges at the Washington, DC-based federal court of appeals ruled on Friday that Austin “had full legal authority” to revoke the plea agreement for Mohammed and two other defendants.
That deal would have spared Mohammed the possibility of the death penalty in exchange for a plea of guilty.
Friday’s decision will prolong a decades-long legal saga for Mohammed, who has been imprisoned at a notorious detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since he was captured in Pakistan in 2003.
Austin revoked the deal in August of last year, saying that the US public and victims’ families “deserve the opportunity to see” the case brought to trial before a military commission — an alternative justice system established for Guantanamo detainees.
But any trial is likely to be fraught with challenges — including questions about evidence obtained by torture — and will take years, extending the legal limbo for the Guantanamo detainees.
A military judge reinstated the plea agreements in November, and a military appeals court affirmed the decision one month later.
The administration of former President Joe Biden then took the case to a federal civilian court of appeals.
Lawyers for defendants like Mohammed argued that Austin was too late to revoke the agreements, parts of which were already materialising …