Secretary of Defense Austin canceled the request for clemency for the mastermind behind the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Following the news, Republicans and relatives of the victims had criticized the Biden administration.
The US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, annulled on Friday the plea deal reached earlier in the week for the mastermind of the attacks of September 11, 2001, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and his two accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, accused of the attacks. Therefore, the death penalty request has been reinstated.
The measure comes two days after the military commission in Guantánamo (Cuba) announced that the officer designated to supervise the war court, retired Brigadier General Susan Escallier, had approved the plea deals for the three men considered responsible for the massacre that shocked the United States and the world more than twenty years ago.
Criticism from the families of the victims and from Republicans
The letters sent to the families of the almost three thousand people murdered in the Al Qaeda attacks they pointed out that the agreements stipulated that the three would serve a maximum of life imprisonment. In an order released Friday night, Austin wrote that “in light of the importance of the decision”, he decided that the authority to make a decision on accepting the agreements was his and rescinded Escallier’s approval.
Some families of the victims of the attack condemned the agreement for cutting off any possibility of full trials and possible death sentences. Republicans were quick to criticize the Biden administration for the deal, even though the White House stated after the announcement that it had no knowledge of it.
