U.S. asks court to stop plea agreements in alleged 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s case | Global News Avenue

The U.S. government has submitted a sports Trying to prevent a military court from accepting plea deals offered to three men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, including the alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

The Justice Department filed a motion with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday asking the court to bar the Guantanamo Bay war tribunal from moving forward with a plea deal negotiated last summer. Government lawyers also asked the appeals court to suspend proceedings, including a plea hearing scheduled for Friday for attack mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, while it considers the request.

“The charges against the defendants demonstrate their extensive roles as advisers, commanders, and conspirators in the murder of 2,976 people, the injuring of numerous civilian and military personnel, and the destruction of tens of billions of dollars’ worth of property,” the document states, later argued. “This Court shall issue a mandamus and injunction against the Military Commission directing it to recognize that the Secretary effectively withdrew from the pretrial agreement with the defendant and enjoin the Military Commission from conducting a hearing at which the defendant will plead guilty under the invalid pretrial agreement.” “

Last summer, Muhammad and two other defendants reached a deal that allowed them to admit their roles in the case. 9/11 attacks in exchange for allowing them to avoid the death penalty.

Soon after, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sought to have the deals quashed, saying in a memo that “given the importance of the decision,” he himself should have the authority to approve the plea deals, rather than the subordinate authorities who accepted them.

Judges in the 9/11 cases and subsequent military appeals courts ruled against Austin and said he weighed in too late. After the Court of Military Appeals ruling, the Defense Ministry said it was considering its options and whether to pursue proceedings in a higher court, as it is doing now.

There are two other defendants in the case, but one has yet to reach a plea deal and the other has been ruled mentally unfit to stand trial.

The plea agreement, which remains sealed, will see the three defendants plead guilty to seven charges against them, including murder, conspiracy and terrorism, as well as an eighth charge of intentionally causing great bodily harm, according to a motion filed Tuesday.

When asked in November why he tried to withdraw his plea deal earlier this year, Austin said, “I thought at the time, this was so important that I should be the one to make the decision about it. And I still have Same feeling, I won’t comment on anything that might happen in the future but I will reiterate that I still feel the same way.”