US blocks plea deal for ‘9/11 mastermind’ Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

A US court has temporarily blocked Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of 9/11, from making a guilty plea deal, which would have allowed him to avoid the death penalty, following a last-minute intervention from the Biden administration.

Mohammed, who is charged with planning the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks that killed almost 3,000 people on 11 September 2001, was due to enter his plea on Friday in a military court in Guantanamo, the US naval base in Cuba.

However, the District of Columbia federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that this could not happen. The panel said its decision was only temporary, adding that a final decision will be made once the arguments have been fully considered.

The ruling comes after months of previously fruitless attempts from the Biden administration to block the plea deal.

Initially, the current US government had supported the plea deal for Mohammed and two of his co-defendants, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, which took more than two years to successfully negotiate.

Under its terms, the three men agreed to plead guilty to 2,976 murder charges in exchange for life sentences. They also promised to answer questions that the victims’ family members still have.

A clause in Mohammed’s deal also stops prosecutors from seeking the death penalty once he has pleaded guilty, even if the plea deal is later scrapped.

In August, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin reneged on the plea agreement that had been approved by his department. He argues that the crimes of 11 September are so grave that the death penalty should not be precluded.

After a judge in Guantanamo and a military review panel rejected Austin's intervention, the US government took its case to the appeals court on Tuesday.

Military prosecutors have told the families of the 9/11 victims that the plea deal is “the best path to finality and justice”. The torture of detainees at Guantanamo means that some of Mohammed and his co-defendant’s statements might potentially be unusable in court.

More than 23 years after one of the deadliest days in US history, the families of the victims are divided about how best to proceed.

Ken Fairben, whose only child, the paramedic Keith Fairben, died in the attacks, had wanted the plea deal to go ahead.

“I, honest to God, thought that we were going to have some — I don't like 'closure' — but some forward motion, something definite,” he said.

“It's just so frustrating. It's absolutely heartbreaking,” he added, noting that he spoke only for himself.

However, Gordon Haberman, whose daughter, Andrea, was killed at the World Trade Centre, wants to see the accused face trial.

“If this leads to a full trial for these guys, then I'm in favour of that,” he said.

The District of Columbia federal appeals court has scheduled the next steps for 22 January, meaning that the process will continue into Donald Trump’s administration, which begins two days earlier.