Accused 9/11 plotters avoid death penalty

The mastermind of the September 11 terror attacks and two other terrorists will plead guilty in a move that has angered the families of victims.

The alleged mastermind of the September 11 terror attacks and two other terrorists being held on Guantanamo Bay will plead guilty as part of a deal that will allow them to avoid the death penalty.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges in exchange for a life sentence.

“The Convening Authority for Military Commissions has entered into pre-trial agreements with Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, three of the co-accused in the 9/11 case,” an Office of Military Commissions (OMC) spokesperson confirmed.

Nearly 3000 people were killed in the September 11 attacks.

Al-Qaeda's Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will avoid the death penalty. Picture: AFP

Relatives of victims killed in the 2001 atrocity told of their shock over the move.

“I am very disappointed. We waited patiently for a long time. I wanted the death penalty — the government has failed us,” Daniel D’Allara, whose twin brother, NYPD cop John was killed in the attacks, told The New York Post.

Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi. Picture: AFP

A survivor walks through the debris following the collapse of one of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. Picture: AFP

A Pentagon statement said no details of the deal would be immediately made public at this time, but the New York Times reported that Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for a life sentence instead of a trial after they could get the death penalty.

The three terrorists have been held at Guantanamo Bay for years. Picture: AFP

Such a proposal was detailed by prosecutors in a letter last year but divided the families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks, with some still wanting the defendants to face the ultimate penalty.

Much of the legal jousting surrounding the men’s cases has focused on whether they could be tried fairly after having undergone methodical torture at the hands of the CIA in the years after 9/11 — a thorny question that the plea deals help avoid.

Mohammed was regarded as one of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s most trusted and intelligent lieutenants before his March 2003 capture in Pakistan. He then spent three years in secret CIA prisons before arriving in Guantanamo in 2006.

A man stands in the rubble, and calls out asking if anyone needs help, after the collapse of the first World Trade Centre Tower on September 11, 2001. Picture: AFP

The trained engineer — who has said he masterminded the 9/11 attacks “from A to Z” — was involved in a string of major plots against the United States, where he had attended university.

In addition to planning the operation to bring down the Twin Towers, Mohammed claims to have personally beheaded US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 with his “blessed right hand,” and to have helped in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing that killed six people.

Bin Attash, a Saudi of Yemeni origin, allegedly trained two of the hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks, and his US interrogators also said he confessed to buying the explosives and recruiting members of the team that killed 17 sailors in an attack on the USS Cole.

A courtroom sketch from 2021 shows Khalid Sheikh Mohammed along with co-defendants Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Walid bin Attash at a pre-trial hearing at the military commissions court at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay. Picture: AFP

He took refuge in neighbouring Pakistan after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and was captured there in 2003, and was then held in a network of secret CIA prisons.

Hawsawi is suspected of managing the finance for the September 11 attacks. He was arrested in Pakistan on March 1, 2003, was also held in secret prisons before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2006.

The United States used Guantanamo, an isolated naval base, to hold militants captured during the “War on Terror” that followed the September 11 attacks in a bid to keep the defendants from claiming rights under US law.

The facility held 800 prisoners at its peak, but they have since slowly been repatriated to other countries. President Joe Biden pledged before his election to try and shut down Guantanamo, but it remains open.

In another September 11-related case, the Justice Department denied a request by Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called “20th hijacker,” to serve the remainder of his life sentence in France.

Originally published as Accused 9/11 plotters avoid death penalty