US prosecutors reached a deal with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Pentagon said Wednesday, reportedly involving a guilty plea in exchange for avoiding a death penalty trial
The agreements with Mohammed and two other accomplices moves the long-running cases — which have been bogged down in pre-trial maneuverings for years while the defendants remained held at the Guantanamo military base in Cuba — toward resolution.
“The specific terms and conditions of the pretrial agreements are not available to the public at this time,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
The New York Times reported that Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi had agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence instead of the death penalty.
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.
