An appeals court agreed to temporarily pause the guilty plea proceedings of 9/11 terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The guilty plea would have enabled Mohammed and his co-defendants to avoid a death penalty trial.
The decision comes in response to a motion filed by the Department of Defense, which stated the plea agreement would cause “irreparable” harm.
“Respondents are charged with perpetrating the most egregious criminal act on American soil in modern history—the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” the DOD wrote. “The military commission judge intends to enforce pretrial plea agreements that will deprive the government and the American people of a public trial as to the respondents’ guilt and the possibility of capital punishment, despite the fact that the Secretary of Defense has lawfully withdrawn those agreements.”
“The harm to the government and the public will be irreparable once the judge accepts the pleas, which he is scheduled to do in hearings beginning on January 10, 2025,” the filing read.
Last month, a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review concluded that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had no authority to “withdraw” the plea deal.
“[W]e agree with the military judge that the Secretary did not have authority to revoke respondents’ existing PTAs [pretrial agreement] because the respondents had started performance of the PTAs,” the ruling says.
Austin first moved to revoke the plea deals in August, writing in a memorandum to Susan Escallier, the U.S. official behind the plea deal, “I have determined that, in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused in the above-referenced case, responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009. Effective immediately, I hereby withdraw your authority in the above-referenced case to enter into a pre-trial agreement and reserve such authority to myself.”
