An appeals court has dismissed a deal that would have transformed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed ( the orchestrator behind the September 11 attacks, ) death sentence into life imprisonment in return for his confession.
The agreement, previously deemed binding by a military court, has incited fury among the relatives of the victims of the terrorist incidents. Last year, former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin took steps to overturn it, which faced backlash for being a ministerial decision.
Austin “operated within the bounds of his legal powers, and we abstain from contesting his judgment,” the judges state.
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The arrangement also extended to Mohammed’s two co-conspirators, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.
All three were apprehended in 2003 and are currently held in detention at Guantanamo Bay. The lengthy judicial proceedings have been complicated by the issue of whether the torture they endured in the CIA’s facility has influenced the evidence.
How Do Families of 9/11 Victims Feel About the New Verdict