Judge blocks Pentagon chief’s voiding of plea deals for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, others in 9/11 case

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge astatine nan subject committee astatine Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has ruled that plea bargains struck by alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 2 codefendants stay valid, striking down an bid by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to propulsion retired nan plea deals and proceed to trial, a authorities charismatic said Wednesday.

The charismatic said connected information of anonymity because nan order, by Air Force Col. and Judge Matthew McCall, has not yet been posted publically aliases officially announced.

The plea agreements would spare Mohammed and 2 others nan consequence of nan decease punishment successful speech for blameworthy pleas successful nan long-running 9/11 case. Government prosecutors negotiated nan deals pinch nan defense nether authorities auspices, and nan apical charismatic for nan Guantanamo subject committee approved nan deal.

The plea deals successful nan Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacks that killed astir 3,000 people, spurred contiguous governmental blowback by Republican lawmakers and others erstwhile announced successful early August.

Within days of nan deals becoming public, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a little bid saying he was nullifying nan plea agreements. Plea bargains successful imaginable decease punishment cases complete 1 of nan gravest crimes ever connected U.S. ungraded were a momentous measurement that should only beryllium decided by nan defense secretary, Austin said then.